MORE TOWNS FALL NEAR VOLTURN O

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 21, 20 October 1943, Page 5

MORE TOWNS FALL NEAR VOLTURN O

Steady Allied Advance (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, October 18. The progress in Italy is slow but steady. . A land communique issued in North Africa says that patrols of the Eighth Army continue to be active, and that contact is being maintained with the enemy forces west of tho TermollVinchiaturo road. Fifth Army troops continue to press back tiie enemy ou the Volturno front. The enemy is lighting hard, and several counter-attacks have been beaten off. Fresh bridges have been constructed. More tanks and heavy equipment have been moved north of the Volturno. A British war correspondent in Italy reports that the Fifth Army yesterday captured Canccllo, six miles inland on the north side of the Volturno, Morrone, three miles north of the river and 20 miles inland, and Ruviaho, four miles northwest of the junction of the Volturno and Calore Rivers. Morrone, which has an important, commanding position, wag taken only after three fierce counter-at-tacks had'been beaten off. The Germans are fighting very hard to hold all their hill positions. . London military commentators point out that, contrary to some reports, there is no question of a “dash on Romo . or of German forces being trapped. It is emphasized that the Germans did not put 180.000 men into Tunisia and 27,000 in Sicily to let the Allies “walk through Italy ” The Germans are still following their policy of fighting vigorous delaying actions to keep the war away from Germany as long as possible. The present phase of the battle of Italy is proving, as was expected, a strenuous, gradual fight. Unusually heavy rams have turned the soft country of the Vol'turno plain into mud. The Germans, alive to the danger of the Allied advance in the plain and the co-ordinating flanking movement of'the Eighth Army, are fighting, if anything, harder than ever, but the steady pressure of the British, American and Canadian forces is telling, and each day our positions improve. . A. correspondent says that as the threat to Air Marshal*Kesselring’s present defensive scheme increases, it may well be that the forward elements are fighting to give other units time to consolidate new positions further back. Regarding the Volturno battle, he says the Germans must ultimately fall back on the Massieo ridge and the mountain country inland, but they are making their retreat as slow as possible and as costly as possible for us. ■Speakin- today, the German commentator, Captain Sertorious, said: “As before, German tactics are aimed at marking time by resistance.”