SIGNS OF ENEMY CONFUSION

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 234, 30 June 1944, Page 5

SIGNS OF ENEMY CONFUSION

West Italian Drive RESISTANCE STILL STUBBORN (By Telegraph.—Press Assn. —Copyright.) LONDON, June 28. The Allied forces in Italy have continued to press on, specially on the west coast sector, where correspondents say the enemy is showing signs of confusion in the face of the Fifth Army’s drive. Fifth Army troops, after advancing 120 miles in 22 days since the beginning of the push from Rome, are now only 30 miles south of their next big objective—Leghorn—says the British United Press correspondent at Allied headquarters in Italy. Other Fifth Army forces further inland are now 17 miles south-west of Siena, The Germans are resisting stubbornly along the whole of the Fifth Army front. Reuter's correspondent says that Kesselring is demolishing whole villages and converting them into vast tank blocks in the effort to halt the Allied steamroller pushing him back on his final covering position, the Rimini-Pisa line. . The Eighth Army west of Lake Trasimeno has advanced six jniles beyond Chiusi. Progress has been more limited east of the lake because the Germans have converted Magwae into a fortress. Inland, other forces are a little more than 40 miles from Leghorn. In the central Apennines Eighth Army men have made local gains round Lake Prasimeno, and have captured two more heights five niles north of Perugia. The Fifth Army occupied San Vincenzo yesterday after fierce fighting, writes a correspondent at Allied headquarters in Italy. The Germans evacuated the civilians and prepared the town for defence with numerous obstacles and barbed wire. The Fifth Army infantry smashed' in and wrested the town from the enemy after hours of house-to-house fighting. ___________ i