SECRET TELL KEPT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 September 1943, Page 4

SECRET TELL KEPT

WHEREABOUTS OF EIGHTH ARMY MAY BE CUTTING IN BEHIND GERMANS. DEVELOPMENTS OF CAMPAIGN IN ITALY. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day. 12.20 p.m.) LONDON, September 20. The Fifth Army continues to advance, meeting only slight opposition, Amalfi was captured today. Reuter’s correspondent at Allied headquarters says that, following on the capture of the Sorrento Peninsula, American “long toms” are now able to lob shells into Naples, across a twelve-mile stretch of water. According to the Moscow radio, the German military commander has proclaimed a state of siege in Naples. Reuter says the whereabouts of the Eighth Army is a well-kept secret. Military observers in Algiers believe that four days’ lack of news of General Montgomery’s force may indicate that the Eighth Army is cutting in behind the Germans—“a Montgomery right hook this time.” An earlier unconfirmed report from Cairo stated that the Eighth Army was in front of Naples. Front line messages today suggest that Marshal Kesselring might fight only a delaying action around Naples, falling back to a new defence line on the Volturno River, north of Naples. American fighter-bombers yesterday heavily strafed the long lines of an enemy motor convoy moving northward from the Salerno bridgehead battle area. They located about 800 vehicles, of which they wrecked 109 and badly damaged 137. Smoking wreckage cluttered the mountainsides. It has been established that the Germans lost at least 40 tanks in -the Salerno battle. The German news agency states that there are now ten Allied divisions in Salerno —at least 120,000 men. It adds that British motorised forces yesterday twice attacked from Vietri, with the intention of clearing the way to Naples, but that both attacks were thrown back.

The Berlin radio’s commentator, Captain Sertorius, says: “The . Fifth Army has had heavy losses and its organisation is somewhat shaken. The Eighth Army has undergone strenuous forced marches. It remains to be seen whether the enemy is able to launch a super-offensive against the shortened German lines or will prefer to test the strength of the new German positions, in the coming days, with violent reconnaissance. The possibility cannot be excluded of the Allies using their great naval superiority for the purpose of carrying out flanking landing . manoeuvres, either on the Tyrrhenian or Adriatic coast, in the German rear, before Generals Clark and Montgomery launch their super-attack.” Allied Headquarters consider Berlin’s claim that the Fifth Army suffered 10,000 casualties absurd. Allied casualties in the Salerno battle are not known, hut were expected to be heavy. The “Daily Telegraph’s” correspondent at Allied Headquarters says: “Marshal Kesselring’s forces are completely at the mercy of the Allied air force, which has swept the Luftwaffe from the sky. The enemy is withdrawing along roads which are bombed day and night. His transport columns are being terribly mauled, Our pilots are tearing up and down the lines of vehicles, bombing and gunning them.”