GERMAN TROOPS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 September 1943, Page 3

GERMAN TROOPS

WITHDRAWING FROM PART ' OF SALERNO AREA BUT OPPOSING ADVANCE ON NAPLES. DEFENDING LAST OF HILLY COUNTRY. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.0 a.m.) RUGBY, September 19. The German withdrawal in . the Salerno area is continuing, according to the latest report, though the enemy is still contesting the northern end of the area and is resisting the advance of British troops along both roads to Naples. A correspondent states that both roads are being dynamited and that ammunition and supply dumps are burning. The troops have made slow progress since they seized the gorge through which the road passes. Resistance is sure to be met, because only a little way north the road emerges from hilly country into the Naples Plain. In the north, the beach-head, after ten days, is the same long stfip along the coast that it was at the end of the landing, but the important thing is that it is still intact. The Germans now hold selected points very strongly, but do not attempt to hold a line. The plan is to break up any attack with small parties, each armed with a big proportion of automatic weapons. They apparently reckon to get away before we have Time effectively to deal with them.