ALL HEIGHTS.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 September 1943, Page 4

ALL HEIGHTS.

IN THE SALERNO AREA OCCUPIED BY THE ALLIES. IFGENERAL ENEMY WITHDRAWAL. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.40 a.m.) RUGBY, September 23. Today, two weeks after their landing on the beaches, Fifth Army troops have occupied every height in the Salerno area, and in some parts of the American section it is the Germans who are now down in the flat country, exposed to relentless shelling, states a correspondent with the Fifth Army. Nowhere, in the American section, are the Germans attacking. They are withdrawing slowly along the whole front. In some instances the American push up into the mountains has been so rapid that the Germans have had to make hurried departures from small mountain towns to avoid being taken in the passes. An Algiers communique says: “The Fifth and Eighth Armies have continued to advance and have captured Ginosa and Aviglano and positions north-west of Potenza and Acerno. The enemy continues to cling hard to positions in the western sector, pending a withdrawal of the left flank.” CITY OF THE DEAD HORRORS OF DEVASTATION IN NAPLES. FIGHTING GOING ON IN RUINS. (Received This Day, 11.40 a.m.) LONDON, September 23. Naples is rapidly becoming a city of the dead. The Italians continue to fight the Germans and disease is spreading, state accounts from inside the stricken city. The Germans have blocked almost every shipping berth along the docks while trying to smash Italian nests of resistance in the rabbit warren of streets behind the harbour front. Italian soldiers and the people are fighting back as best they can, hoping for the day when the Allies break into the city to relieve them. No real attempts seems to have been made to extinguish the fires along the waterfront. Instead, new explosions as the result of German demolitions constantly increase the blaze. Air photographs taken by Allied planes reveal that the Germans are destroying the great harbour works and that at least 30 ships have been scuttled. The city had oil refineries, ironworks, munition and aircraft factories, all within a few miles of the centre. A great black cloud hangs, like a funeral pall, over the living and dead. The smoke climbs into the blue Mediterranean sky, fouling it with the filth of burning oil, rubber and the contents of a score of warehouses and factories. Fighting is going on in the ruins, between German armoured units and Italian soldiers. Complete chaos reigns in the city. Cholera is spreading and over 120 people have already died of disease. The hospitals are overcrowded with sick and wounded. Thousands of citizens are fleeing daily into the mountains. Much of Naples was smashed by bombs before the Allied invasion of the mainland Now the Germans are completing the job. ~ GATHERING WEIGHT FIFTH ARMY ASSAULT. ON PIVOT OF GERMAN LINE. (Received This Day, 1.20 p.m.) LONDON, September 23. The Allies are now in sight of Naples, which is burning fiercely and presents a lurid picture. With the Allies closing in the German forces south of Naples are falling back to a defensive ring around the city. Front line correspondents report that the Allied forces have advanced against heavy machinegun and mortar fire. The Allies today captured Contursi, six miles north of Eboli. The Fifth Army's push is taking on the appearance of a really large-scale offensive. Reuter's correspondent says the Fifth Army’s strength is gathering like a cloud before a storm. Artillery and armour are on the move, and the army can count on big support from the Allied air forces in ousting the Germans from their hill positions. Other correspondents say the hardest fighting is still at the German pivot, northward of Salerno. The entire German front is centred on these high positions, from which the enemy is moving his lines back. Reuter reports that the Fifth Army had not let up its fierce artillery barrage. With increased activity all along its front, its pressure is growing. The Germans are still fighting hard to retain their hold on hill positions north of Salerno, where everything favours the defence. IN ALLIED HANDS FOUR OF THE DODECANESE - " ISLANDS. PREPARATIONS FOR BALKANS THRUST. (Received This Day, 10.45 a.m.) LONDON, September 23. More troops are being sent to the Dodecanese Islands, according to Turkish reports, which say that British warships are moving in and out of the islands and that Allied planes are using newly-established airfields. The Allies occupy four of the Dodecanese Islands —Castelrosso, Cos, Leros and Samos. British forces by-passed the Germans held Rhodes, the main island in the Dodecanese, to land in Leros, Cos and Samos. Landings on other islands are expected soon, as a preliminary to a thrust against the Balkans from the south-east. EARLY VICTORY ■'"ANTICIPATED IN CORSICA. GENERAL GIRAUD'S SURVEY. (Received This Day, 1.30 p.m.) LONDON, September 23. General Giraud is firmly convinced that the struggle in Corsica will end in fiom ten to 15 days. He expressed this view on returning to Algiers today from a two day visit to Corsica. The French are now masters of twp-

thirds of the island, said General Giraud. The Germans hold the northeastern corner and are trying to get out, but the French are holding them. General Giraud disclosed that the attack against Corsica had been prepared for six months and that 10,000 Cor- . sicans had been armed since February with tommy-guns dropped by parachute or landed by submarine. The 80,000 Italians on the island are taking orders from the French, but there are only a handful of Germans. ADRIATIC PORT CAPTURED BY YUGOSLAVS (Received This Day, 10.45 a.m.) LONDON, September 23. The Algiers radio quoted a Yugoslav communique stating that Susak, on the northern Adriatic coast, near Fiume, has fallen into the hands of the People’s Army of Liberation, after heavy fighting. SLOVENES DEFEAT GERMANS Slovene units are now fighting on a front of 125 miles from Goriza to Lbibljana, along which in the last two days four German attacks have been repulsed. Slovene and Montenegrin units disarmed eight Italian divisions. Another Italian division, vzith its commanding generals, joined the Yugoslav Army of Liberation and is now fighting against the Germans.