VERY GREAT BOOTY

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 201, 23 May 1944, Page 5

VERY GREAT BOOTY

Germans’ Disorderly Withdrawal

LONDON,, May 21, A “Tinies” correspondent in Italy, referring to the booty captured in the new-ly-occupied territory, says that, in spite of the stiffening resistajice there is no doubt that the German Tenth Army is badly shaken up. The German retreat has not conformed with the “orderly withdrawal to prepared positions” mentioned in German communiques. The French report that enormous quantities of military stores were captured intact. The Gaeta Peninsula also yielded considerable quantities of stores to the Americans. There is evidence throughout the captured area of the effectiveness of the Allied artillery fire. Many of the enemy minefields were laid down in a great hurry, which, of course, facilitates their discovery and removal.

The Germans are now reinforcing their line with troops drawn from the Anzio sector, covered' as they now are by new and intact positions. The-Germans may be expected to offer stubborn resistance, but the Allied forces are elated at having brokep the deadlock, and do not intend to be stopped. An American correspondent on the coastal sector has seen evidence of the haste of the German retreat. Though some of the towns have been demolished, he saw bunkers still full of ammunition, naval guns and field artillery abandoned, and. toward Foggi, the road in good condition. bridges usable, and telephone poles with the wires intact, while the valley was blooming with flowers unscathed by the war.