SWEEP TO THE PO

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 56, 4 September 1944, Page 1

SWEEP TO THE PO

PROGRESS BEYOND PESARO Press correspondent at Allied headw"en nor/h Yl °UV tr°°ps *re™w well north of the mountains, moving towards the plains within 10 miles of S^T ere believed to be littii to delay them m their sweep to the Srthl-7l?at theindUStrialareaS °f Other units of the Eighth Army further inland penetrated at least six miles through the gap torn in the German defences. The Fifth Army on the west coast as also progressing in its new drive northward, and is now less than 15 miles from the western end of the uothic Line. Armoured units have entered Orentano, eight .miles north of Pontedera. Reuters correspondent with the Eighth Army says that the old Desert air force is intensively bombing German guns, strong-points, troops, and tank concentrations south-west of Rimini, just ahead of the advancing Eighth Army. Airmen are also heavily battering railways on which the Ger-I mans are relying for supplies. I About 1200 Germans have been taken prisoner in the Adriatic sector in the past two days. Algiers radio says that British destroyers supporting our land forces north of Pesaro pounded German gun positions and troop concentration's. The Rome correspondent of the "Daily Mail" says that General Leese, commander of the Eighth Army, in order to surprise the Germans, moved his complete army before breaching the Gothic Line. He> transferred to the Adriatic coast sector over 80,000 vehicles, over 1000 tanks, 1000 guns and 12,000,000 gallons of petrol. The German news agency's commentator, Praegner, states that the British are using seven divisions in the Adriatic sector.

A British United Press correspondent, cabling from Pesaro, reports that Canadians, after bursting through the Gothic Line further inland, swerved towards the coast and are now battling against fleeing remnants of the First German Parachute Division, trying to prevent them escaping from Cattolica.