THREAT TO GERMAN FLANK

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 9, 6 October 1943, Page 5

THREAT TO GERMAN FLANK

Co-Ordinated Pressure On Italian Front ALEXANDER CALLS TUNE LONDON, October 4. Under continuing Allied offensive pressure the German line immediately north of Naples is withdrawing slowly while the rest of 'he line across Italy is being bent backward at a very much greater pace. t Reuters correspondent at the Allied headquarters says: The battle front tonight gives a picture of a masterly strategic plan swinging into action. It is Air-Marshal Kesselring against General Alexander, and General Alexander is scoring all along the line.” The Germans, who are falling back slowly in the. direction of Rome, are being gravely outflanked by the leapfrog capture of Termoli by coastal landing forces of the Eighth Army, and a sixmile advance along the road which crosses the Apennines.

Kesselring's position in the west is even worse, adds Reuter. The success of the Fifth Army in storming across the Calore River north of Benevento must shatter any hope he still had of making a stand on the Volturno line. However, the German resistance is stiffening along the front, demolitions are increasing, and it is a hard battle.

A correspondent says that our troops in the west are meeting determined German rearguard resistance. Enemy guns, well sited, hold up the advance till the gunners are overrun or their ammunition is exhausted. The German commanders know that their rearguards must eventually surrender or be killed, and the correspondent says this is an indication of the importance that the Germans attach to delaying our advance.

According to Algiers radio, the enemy resistance on the right flank of the Eighth Army is weakening. The radio says that the Allies have captured Cajazzo, 10 miles north-east of Benevento. Our air .reconnaissances have not given any indication of when and where the Germans will make a stand. It is believed in Algiers that the chances of a stand on the Volturno River are remote, and that if it is attempted it is very likely to be brief. Contrary View Taken. A correspondent with the Fifth Army (quoted by British Official Wireless) says that the configuration of the country, particularly the dorsal mountain spine, will probably enable the Germans to hold the Volturno line for some time, in spite of the Eighth Army’s progress on ths Adriatic coast. Road conditions, he says, are appalling. Bridges have been blown up and roads cratered and obstructed in every conceivable fashion. This country is reasonably well wooded, with trees of considerable size along the roadside. The Germans have felled these .trees, with charges of explosives, in many .cases creating road blocks which take some time to shift. There is one long road where these trees arc still standing. The quick advance of our forces drove the enemy back before the charges could be fired, and the explosives can still be seen attached to the trunks.