CLOSE TO NAPLES

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 5, 1 October 1943, Page 5

CLOSE TO NAPLES

Fifth Army Converges On City (By Telegraph.—Press .Assn.—Copyright.) LONDON, September 30. Latest dispatches from Italy say that the Fifth Army is steadily closing in on Naples, one force pushing north from Pompeii, 14 miles 'from the centre of Naples, and the other drawing over to Avellino. , British warships in the Bay of Naples are reported to be shelling the retreating enemy. The Allied forces at one point are only two miles from the centre of Naples, says Morocco radio. Elsewhere they are 5| miles, and the average distance from the centre is four miles.

The Germans have blown up the royal palace and other famous buildings in Naples from sheer spite, says an Italian officer who escaped from the city. Factory machinery was also destroyed. LONDON, September 29. The Fifth Army, after six days of tough and arduous fighting, smashed through the German defensive ring in ■the wall of mountains separating the plain of Naples from the Gulf of Salerno. In its advance across the plain of Naples in which it captured the important port of Castellammare and Noeera, the Fifth Army also took Pompeii. An Algiers communique says that the Eighth Army continues its advance against weak resistance. The Fifth Army has driven the enemy from strong defensive positions in the mountains west and north of Salerno and forced an appreciable withdrawal. One-sixth of Italy is now in Allied hands. ~ . The British United Press reports that the Fifth Army, in its spectacular breakthrough of the German hedge-hog system, seized six principal townships or villages and also at least 20 other small villages. Infantry at dawn yesterday, after an allout barrage with 25-pounders and other guns, swept through the hills'down to the plains and the Bay of Naples. The Fifth Army, by striking through the hills, by-passed Sorrento and Equinas, which have also fallen to us, with the entire Sorrento Peninsula, measuring approximately 75 square miles. The Germans, as our attack developed, withdrew from their positions on the peninsula. The Fifth Army also struck out to the east and north-east, capturing Acerno, about 20 miles east of Salerno, Montemarano. three miles north of Cassano. and Torella, about 40 miles north-east of Salerno. Through Tortuous Pass. At the first light of dawn yesterday the Fifth Army moved forward in rain, which was the first since the Allied landing, says Reuter. They fought their way down the tortuous Caramel Pass and by noon had captured Noeera. The naval base of Castellammare, 14 miles across the bay from Naples, fell shortly after'ward. Castellammare has ship-building and repair facilities and a population of about 45,000. A British officer summed up the battle of Caramel Pass to Reuter: “It has been a bloody fight,” he said, “but it was bloodier for them than for us.” Explosions shook Caramelia village as . the Germans blew up the roads ahead There are still snipers in the houses. Tlie heaviest fighting of the day occurred at Sala, three miles south-west of Noeera, which had already changed hands several times in the past few days, Here the Germans put up a determined coun-ter-attack, which was repelled. Immediately the pass was won Allied tanks climbed over the mountains -o the Naples plain, and General Clark’s army moved forward along the entire front from the west coast to the centre of Italy. The advance in the mountains above Salerno was two miles and on other sectors six miles. The German rearguard in the mountains protecting the plain of Naples had

to be bayoneted, bombed aud blasfted from their strongpoints. The Germans are trying to get out of Naples ns quickly as they can in good order, and to leave as little as possible intact. A military spokesman at Allied headquarters stressed that there .is no suggestion of the Germans retreating in disorder. Enemy Not Cut Off. A correspondent says there are no indications that Hie enemy forces wore cut off or that large numbers, of prb-oners were taken, but the territorial gain of the Allied forces lias been very great. Military observers in Loudon believe the Germans will attempt to make their next stand along the Volturno River, 20 miles north of Naples. A correspondent says that the comprehensive destruction carried out by the enemy in Naples indicates clearly that thev do not intend to hold the city or return to it. He thinks it is unlikely that they will put up any important resistance to the advance on Naples apart, from light delaying actions aud demolitions. The Allied line is likely to change quickly in the near future. According to Algiers radio, battleships are shelling the German positions round the base of Mount Vesuvius. Drive On Avellino.

While the left flank of the Fifth Army was battling its way forward yard by yard through the hills south of Naples, the right flank drove toward the inward side of the Naples plain and the key comnuinicatioii centre of Avellino. z -lh" men on the right flank are reported to be within 10 tniles of Avellino. . A later report from the United Nations radio says we have already occupied San Angelo, due east of Avellino, and the Germans tonight admit the evacuation of a number of places on the road to it. , .. , The Eighth Army also swung* lot ward from the Fifth Army’s flank to the Adriatic, capturing Zapponeta, on the coast east of Foggia. “Foggia lias ceased to exist as a town.” says Rotifer s correspondent in southern Italy. “If it is to rise again It will have to be entirely rebuilt.. As tanks and armoured cars, of the Eighth Army nosed into the outskirts of the town last night tlie Germans blew up the large power station, demolished every road crossing, and sent high build!tigs crashing down across the streets, in an attempt to block our advance. Foggia today i« a mass of rubble and a jumlne ot tangled telephone wires and witnered Berlin radio tonight admitted tlie loss of three places north and north-west of Salerno which arc not mentioned from British sources, namely Baronissi. Montero. and Castel san Giorgio. The radio also admitted that the r ifth Army has captured Pompeii, and added that British naval units were approaching Naples and that the battle for the city was becoming fiercer.