CLEARED MOUNTAIN FLANK

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 8, 5 October 1943, Page 5

CLEARED MOUNTAIN FLANK

Fifth Army Spearhead In More Open Country DEMOLITIONS AND HEAVY RAIN

(By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.! LONDON, October 3. The progress of both the Fifth and Eighth Armies has been slowed down by German demolitions and heavy rains. Beyond Naples the demolitions are greater than anything our troops have been up against before. However, on both flanks of the Fifth Army’s front the troops have reached more open country, where greater deployment of infantry and armour will be possible. The Fifth Army’s right wing in the mountain drive has cleared the Germans from the Apennine wedge between the two Allied armies, says Reuter’s Algiers correspondent. The most important * towns captured in this latest thrust were Grottaminarda, on the hill | road from Benevento, and Vallatta, a few miles farther south.

Front-line dispatches say that Allied troops on the Fifth Army's right flank, after capturing Benevento, pushed on without pausing, and now control the centre of the vital Volturno road network. Berlin radio reports that the Fifth Army’s coastal wing, striking from Naples along the Capua road, is attacking toward Giugliano. The radio claims that -the attack has been frustrated. , ■ Allied sources say that the coastal

wing is meeting with -stiff resistance from German rearguards, but correspondents agree that Field-Marshal Kesselring is falling back to the great coastal plain south of Rome. Cairo radio declared tonight that the Fifth Army has left Naples behind and is now harassing the Germans moving back' toward Rome.

Capua, ahead of the Fifth Army, is the pivot on which Kesselring is resting the German line, says Reuter. Loss of Capua, coupled with the Allied possession of Benevento, would end the attempt to make a serious stand along the Volturno. Two great main roads run to Rome from Campa, one following the coast and the other sweeping inland. Thrusts by Montgomery. Dispatches from the Eighth Army front, on the other side of the Apennines, say that a double advance is being made, one force striking across country from Lucera on the line leading to Rome and northward, and the other force pushing on beyond San Severe. The advance is continuing in ■spite of torrential rain. The Eighth Army is -advancing at the rate of lj miles a day. The Eighth Army hag advanced 18 miles from Lucera, north-west of Foggia. The German resistance has stiffened on some sectors and numerous counter-at-tacks have been reported. Tile United Nations radio at Algiers reports that all aerodromes round Naples are now in Allied hands.