BEACH-HEAD ATTACK CUTS APPIAN WAY

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 203, 25 May 1944, Page 5

BEACH-HEAD ATTACK CUTS APPIAN WAY

Canadian Success In Hitler Line DEFENCE BREACHED IN HARD FIGHT t LONDON, May 24. A powerful new Allied offensive which is officially described as “the start of a new phase in the Battle of Italy” was launched yesterday morning by the Fifth Army from the Anzio beach-head. It coincided with a strong Eighth Army assault against the Adolt Hitler Line. Dispatches this morning make it clear that the new phase” has begun well. . United States troops from the beach-head have now cut the Appian Way. They hold more than a mile of the road just below Cistema. British forces have made an advance in the north ot the beach-head. A Rome report says people in the capital can clearly hear the sound of gunfire. . . . In the new offensive on the main front, it is officially announced, Canadian forces attacking for the first time as a corps, have made a breach in the Hitler Line defences north of Pontecorvo after extremely heavy fighting in which they greatly distinguished themselves. . The Americans in the south have seized a peak which dominates Terracina. The French have also occupied some heights.

Two attacks were launched from the beach-head. The first, by British troops, began against the left sector, directed inland, and the second, also by British troops, against the right flank. Americans later joined in this attack. The Anzio forces have broken into heavily-mined defences on a wide front Their attack is being directed from the beach-head by General Clark, the commander of the Fifth Army.

IMPORTANT EARLY ADVANCES

Terrific Pressure LONDON, May 23. First reports indicate that both of the new attacks in Italy have been highly successful. The Swiss radio quotes a Naples message saying that the Allies have reached the shore of Lake Spoliano, about four miles east of the beach-bead perimeter. The German news agency announced that the Germans have evacuated Pico, which is an important strongpoint ot the Hitler Line and the northern bastion of the Germans’ switch line. Iteuter’s correspondent with the Eighth Army reports that troops of the Eighth Army, supported by tanks, have cracked through some of the main defences of the Hitler Line. Their attack is designed to send the Germans reeling back to Rome. A barrage from several hundred guns preceded the drive, which was launched at the first light of dawn against a sector midway between Pontecorvo and Awm The first objectives were reached dunn„ the morning, and the attackers pushed on in the afternoon. Prisoners were brought in from the defences shortly after the start of the attack. t Strongholds Entered. Many shell bursts could be seen in and over Pontecorvo, into which elements of a French force endeavoured to ngnt their way in face of stubborn German 16 Troops'’ of the Eighth Army. are at present in possession of the major part of Piedimontg and maintaining their pressure against the enemy, who are beins winkled out of dugouts. , The Fifth Army, on the mam front* has smashed into the reinforced German lines and seized more heights, and American guns are hammering Terracina. says the British United Press correspondent. Terracing. apart from being the anchor at the Tyrrhenian Sea end ot the Hitler switch line, is also in the rear of the Germans surrounding the beach-head. Ihe Allied attack in this area gives direct land support to the beach-head’ offensive. German reinforcements are now fighting vigorously from well dug-in defences against American troops, who, however, are pushing through the mountains an closing in against the town. Accordim, to Cairo radio, advanced Allied troops are only 14 miles from the Anzio beachheThe “Daily Mail” correspondent says that the biggest tank battle of the Italian campaign has -developed on the Eighth Army front before the Hitler lji The German news agency’s commentator declared: “The front is resounding with an Allied drumfire such as has never been witnessed before.” . Today’s German communique says that the beach-head offensive was preceded by a barrage which it describes as hitherto unequalled in intensity. Thousand-Gun Barrage. The British United Press correspondent at Anzio, describing the launching 6f the main blow against the containing force, says that a violent barrage came at dawn from a thousand Runs massed behind tanks and infantry. Allied warships joined in the bombardment. At zero hour. 6.30 a.m., men from picked units rose up from where they had lain all night and disappeared into the gun smoke, and a smoke screen was put up before the Allied lines to conceal the attack toward Cisterna across no mans land, known as “the bloody mile. Air Force flyers who helped to smasn

a path for the infantry reported striking a devastating blow against large concentrations of Germans. From a low altitude Bostons showered the Germans with fragmentation bombs aud smoke bombs. The landing of many troops and hundreds of vehicles to reinforce the beachhead troops before the attack is described by a British United Press correspondent with the landing force. He says: It is significant that the enemy made no attempt to impede the landing, which very considerably reinforces the beach-head strength.” Not only was the convoy not attacked, but the enemy did not produce the routine shelling of the anchorage when the convoy arrived. The only explanation is that the enemy was saving ammunition and planes for a full-scale effort to beat the offensive.” German radio reports that American paratroopers were dropped to participate in the beach-head offensive. Allied warships are also bombarding the Germans on the fringe of the beach-head. Saturation Bombing. Light bombers and fighter-bombers provided, an air spearhead when they bombed large concentrations of German troops on the eight-mile stretch of dry riverbed near the railway line north of Cisterna. Between 500 and <5O Allied heavy bombers linked up with this attack* striking at enemy supplies and troop concentrations within a uO-mile radius of A correspondent says that the Allied air assault virtually saturated the target

area. SOME OF TOUGHEST ' FIGHTING YET

Wellington Tank Regiment (Official War Correspondent. N.Z.E.F.) EIGHTH ARMY FRONT, May 23. High praise for what he called the “quite magnificent way” the New Zealand tanks of the Wellington Armoured Regiment supported his men m five days of continuous offensive fighting in the Liri Valley is expressed by the commander of a British infantry division, u* a personal message to the commander ot the New Zealand armoured brigade. “Everything we asked of them they did in full measure and more, and all my soldiers are loud in their praises, the general said. “I am so glad that part of the New Zealand division was in at the end of'Cassino.” Of this attack, which ended in cutting the road to Rome and the capture of Cassino, a colonel commanding the Wellington ta'nks, who won the JJ.b.v. 101 his part in the New Zealanders earl attack on the town, says that the enemy stood his ground firmly and had to be blasted out of his positions or killed still fighting in the open. ‘ The squadron commanders and men of the regiment, he says in his survey,, just written onthe operation, “are unanimously of the opinion that the action on days was some of the toughest and bloodiest fighting yet experienced by the unit in Italy. %

GUERRILLA SUCCESS

French-Italian Frontier LONDON, May 23. According to a broadcast from Algiers radio, partisans (Savoy Italians a“ d French, patriots), operating in the Piedmont Province, control the St. Bernard Pass, through which runs one of the railway lines from France into northern A ? communique from General Eisenhower’s headquarters _ confirms that French guerrillas are aiding the resistance movement inside Italy.

INFERIOR NAZI PLANES

(Received May 24, 7 p.m.) LONDON, May 23. Reuter’s correspondent at Allied headquarters in Italy says Allied fighter pilots report that the Luftwaffe is increasingly reduced to using second-string planes of Italian and Rumanian construction. The Germans still show plenty of aggressive spirit in their effort to break through the fighter screen and attack the Allied bombers. They use head-on attack formations, rocket fire, and a variety oi other clever tactics.