SAVED TERMOLI

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 13, 11 October 1943, Page 5

SAVED TERMOLI

Eighth Army’s Grim Fight LONDON,' October 8. The Eighth Army won a victory at Termoli against divisions dispatched across Italy to slow it down. German divisions, in addition to the 16th Panzer, included the 29th and 15th Panzer Grenadier, the 26th Panzer and the Ist Parachute Divisions. The British United Press says that Termoli was saved after some of the bitterest fighting of the campaign. Termoli was not won till the tide of battle had flowed" right into the town. The final despairing German attacks were, made only 200 yards from a hospital where doctors operated while the Allies forced the Germans back at the point of the bayonet in bloody hand-to-hand fightThe battle was not won without tank losses. German 88 mm. guns got a sight on our tanks and knocked out some. Scrambling Fight. The most recent Allied gains are not spectacular, but the troops are advancing in a scrambling fight through mountain defiles and maintaining a firm link between the Fifth and Eighth Armies'. The bad weather, which is unfavourable for flying conditions, is adding to the difficulties of the Eighth Army’s advance. Nevertheless, the Eighth Army counterattacked and took high ground above Termoli. This counter stroke by General Montgomery is described by Reuter's correspondent as brilliant. The Eighth Army has met several attacks from the 16th Panzer Division, which has not proved so threatening as was at first expected. It appears that the division has only about 30 tanks operating, and prisoners captured indicate that the majority of the troops are Alsatians, Czechs and Poles. The “Daily Mail” correspondent with the Eighth Army says that Kesselring has clearly allowed the two halves of his retreat to become unbalanced. The Eighth Army was allowed to advance too fast and too far, and it drove so far north of the Fifth Army that it threatened to outflank the Germans. The capure of Termoli in particular seems to have thrown the enemy defences out of gear. Gains Consolidated. The Fifth Army has swiftly consolidated the positions it gained by the capture of Capua by the occupation of a series of towns on the Volturno River line, according to front-line dispatches. It is revealed that the Germans fought fiercely for the river bank positions. The Americans flung back powerful counterattacks and clung to their hard-won captures in the heaviest fighting of the week. Conditions in the heavily waterlogged country are becoming worse with every day of the autumn rains. Nearly four days of bitter fighting were necessary before the enemy nests of resistance between Aversa and the Vol turno River were smashed. Infantry had to labour through quagmires churned up by the passage of jeeps, tanks and supply vehicles and pitted by mines, ' The Allies on the Volturno are now standing along a historic defence line on which observers believe a decisive battle for Rome will be fought out. Key towns which the Allies occupied in consolidation of tiieir main gains include Santa Maria, an important link in the chain of railways from Naples to Rome and Reggio. The Fifth Army troops in the mountainous central sector around Benevento are still fighting their way forward in face of stiff resistance. They are also facing steadily-worsening weather conditions.

Capua is the most important town in the Volturno sector; the main road and railway to Rome pass through it, and it has an airfield. The total of destroyed or. abandoned efiemy planes so far counted in Italy has reached 692.