“CLOUDS HAVE LIFTED”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 September 1943, Page 3

“CLOUDS HAVE LIFTED”

LONDON COMMENT ON BATTLE SOME SIGNS OF ENEMY WITHDRAWALS. FROM SOUTHERN PART OF SALERNO AREA. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 9.25 a.m.) RUGBY, September 17. The movements of the German forces point to the beginning of a withdrawal from the southern Salerno bridgehead, states a correspondent with the Fifth Army today. At the same time they are still making sallies against the northern half, presumably hoping to prevent any forward movement from the Fifth Army threatening to cut off the German forces to the southward. The time has not yet passed for a full-scale attack here but the situation now is such that the German command may decide ultimately that it is unprofitable to keep forces in front of the mountain barrier between the Sele Plain and Naples Plain. The enemy’s use of tank and semi-tracked vehicles is probably dictated by the consideration that these may be needed to make a getaway. The routes are difficult for motor transport which is now notably absent. German prisoners are complaining of a lack of artillery. “The clouds have lifted,” is the comment of military observers in London today on the Battle of Salerno. They regard the Fifth Army (composed almost equally of British and Americans) as having passed the second phase of all amphibious operations — “when troops were hanging on by their eyelids, without depth or stability, in face of ®iemy counter-attacks.” It is not expected that a general offensive will immediately ensue, but the omens are good. The fact that the beach positions were held, and then the line pushed forward, is regarded as due' mainly to the Allied use of seapower and their being able to use seaborne artillery. It is now expected that the Germans will swing back their line, withdrawing their left flank, and endeavour to form a line east and west at Naples. Whether they will be able to hold this remains to be seen. It is noteworthy that in the attacks at Salerno the Germans used the 15th, 16th and 27th panzer divisions, the 29th Motorised Division (which was reborn after its death at Stalingrad) and the Hermann Goering Armoured Division. All 'these evidently have been severely handled, and it is doubtful whether the Germans possess any more armoured troops in Italy worthy of mention. In any event this concentration of armour shows the importance the Germans attached to driving the Allies into the sea at Salerno, and the tremendous gain they believed would accrue to their prestige and morale from its success.