PUSHING INLAND

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 September 1943, Page 3

PUSHING INLAND

BRITISH & CANADIAN TROOPS ENEMY BATTERIES KNOCKED OUT AND MINEFIELDS PENETRATED. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.55 a.m.) LONDON, September 3. The first reports reaching Allied Headquarters from the Italian invasion bridgehead state that British and Canadian troops are pushing inland towards the 6,000 foot mountain “bone” of Italy’s toe. The British United Press Algiers correspondent says the first British troops went ashore under cover of a heavy hail of mortar shells from assault craft and a thick smokescreen. The first men ashore knocked out enemy pillboxes, batteries and roadblocks. The infantry then began to advance through mine-strewn' lemon and olive groves. The enemy apparently left plenty of minefields, but the Eighth Army had little trouble with them. The advance is continuing into the mountainous country behind the coast. The opposition thus far has been mainly from artillery batteries in the mountains. Political considerations may enter into the picture to such an extent that the Italians may decide to put up only a token resistance. It must be pointed out that the nature of the country in this part of Italy does not make for quick advances. It is a land of hills and ridges, far more difficult than Sicily, for our pre-invasion air attacks destroyed many railway bridges which would have facilitated our progress. The successful establishment of our bridgehead must automatically cut the coast railway around the toe of Italy. The area inside the railway is almost entirely mountainous, with few roads. The Axis forces will therefore be split in two, except for the positions they iold in the mountains.