BROKEN IN SPIRIT

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 6, 2 October 1943, Page 5

BROKEN IN SPIRIT

German Detachments Were

Fought To Standstill (By Telegraph'.—Press Assn.—Copyright) (Special Correspondent.) .DONIDON, September 30. A correspondent with the Fifth Army ■ays that the Germans’ resistance in the mountains north-west of Salerno cracked suddenly because they had been fought to a complete standstill. “Many came in as captives—strong, 'burly men of first-line German units, stumbling in their weariness like old' men.” he said. “They were unshaven and dirty._ I have never seen 'Germans so ’broken in spirit and morale. There was fear in their eyes and defeat in the very manner in which they slounehed along,” A correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” at Foggia expresses the opinion that the Germans plan to hold up the Eighth Army iby means of rearguard actions among the mountains of the Abruzzi and Umbria while they consolidate the position in Lombardy and along the River Do. “It looks like being demolitions and demolitions all the way back, wtih occasional minor rearguard actions,” lie says. “It is clear that the Germans, in their policy of demolition, are likely to be just as ruthless in the' country of their former ally as they have shown themselves to Ibe wherever they have conducted retreats, whether in Europe or Africa. The progress of the Eighth Army in the coming weeks should be judged in the light of this prospect. “The weather is now beginning to.deteriorate, and tropical downpours probably herald the beginning of the rainy season. Such circumstances will favour the enemy rather than ourselves. Superficially it does not look as if there is going to be any short cut for the Eighth Army. The physical configuration of Italy compels the Fifth Army and the Eighth Army to maintain entirely distinct routes both by land and sea.” The correspondent says that the progress of the main body of the Eighth Army is unlikely to Ibe marked by any sensational military clashes during the coming weeks.