BEGUN BY THE FIFTH ARMY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 September 1943, Page 4

BEGUN BY THE FIFTH ARMY

Position of Germans South of Naples Becoming Critical EIGHTH ARMY MOVING RAPIDLY INTO • POSITION SEVERAL BIG AERODROMES CAPTURED BY ALLIES (By Telegraph.—Press Association.—Copyright.) (Received This Day, 11.45 a.m.) LONDON, September 17. Preparations are being made for a great Allied push northward from the Salerno area, after the linking up of the Fifth and Eighth armies which has now begun and which is expected to alter the whole position in southern Italy. Already, states Reuter’s Algiers correspondent, the Fifth Army, after its victory in the six-day battle, culminating in the repulse of enemy counter-attacks on Wednesday, is battling forward in powerful twin thrusts. Allied troops are striking into mountain valleys from Monte Corvino, 12 miles inland from Salerno, and are also thrusting from Albanella, both of which are in Allied hands. Front line reports from Italy tonight state that Air Marshal Kesselring has begun to retreat. He is thinning out his forces, although leaving a strong screen. It will be a little time before the Eighth Army places heavy artillery in position and is able to bring up supplies, but its presence in the Salerno battle area threatens the German flank. Air Marshal Kesselring, after his failure to split the Fifth Army, finds his positions seriously jeopardised on three sides. Reuter says that, on the Fifth Army’s left flank, General Montgomery’s troops are swinging into position, after a record march of 200 miles from the Calabrian tip in 13 days. British and German troops are still fighting in the Gioja area, between Bari and Taranto. The Germans are still attacking on the northern edge of the Salerno bridgehead, apparently to hinder a Fifth Army drive threatening to trap enemy troops farther south. British troops, in a dawn clash today, wiped out the remnants of one withdrawing enemy force. Our artillery and aircraft are hammering the Germans’ retreat roads. A British United Press correspondent says the Allies have driven the Germans from the triangle between the Sele and Colore rivers, about 20 miles south-east of Salerno. The National Broadcasting Company’s Algiers representative says the Allied front is now a firm line, heading southwards from Salerno, then up again to Bari. The Fifth Army, pushing southwards, made contact with the Eighth Army near Vallo., The Allied front in Italy runs from Salerno to Vallo, to Sapri, to Scatca and then eastward and north-eastwards to Bari. Other reports from Algiers state that the Allies have captured several big aerodromes.