FURY OF BATTLE ‘LIKE VERDUN’

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 202, 24 May 1944, Page 7

FURY OF BATTLE ‘LIKE VERDUN’

Hundreds Of Allied 60-Ton Tanks NAZIS TALK OF LONG RETREAT (By Telegraph.—Prose jlssn.—Copyright.). LONDON, May 22. German sources generally stress the power of the Allied offensive. The “Voelkiseher Beobachter” predicts that the German retreat will continue to north Italy. It says that Kesselring will give up territory and prestige to husband reserves. “Only the High Command knows where the main defence will lie. It is quite certain that this line is not fixed in central Italy.” The German radio’s chief correspondent declared: “Events in Italy have reached a dramatic climax. The Allies have thrown an unheard-of force of men and material into the fray. They are employing no fewer than 1000 tanks and are dally bringing up new forces.” A statement from the German High Command says: “The battle in Italy is raging at an unslackened pace, several hundred Allied 60-ton tanks have been thrown in. The fighting, which formerly was moving westward, has now wheeled northward as the Alfies thrust against Fondi, which the Germans etill hold, lhe fury of the fighting in the last week compares with the Somme, Verdun and Flanders in the last war.” The German news agency says the heaviest fighting for the main German defence fine is going on along the front' from the Fondi plain to the slopes ot Mount Cairo. The focal point of yesterday’s great battles was the towmship or Pontecorvo, against which numerically superior Allied forces launched concentric attacks all day. supported by hundreds of medium bombers and a terrific artillery barrage. The German garrison held on, and wiped, out one major enemy unit which temporarily penetrated the town. Coming Invasions.

The agency also states that the Allies started an attack from the Nettuno bridgehead eastward, but were repulsed and suffered heavy losses. Berlin radio’s military commentator von Orberg suggested that Allied invasions in the south of France .or the Balkans would follow the offensive in Italy and precede the main invasion, from the west. German air attacks against troop concentrations in' Corsica, he said, confirmed the view that the Allies were planning a series of secondary actions before deploying .the 3,500,000 British and American troops now concentrated in the south of England ready for the invasion.