HEIGHTS OVER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 September 1943, Page 4

HEIGHTS OVER

TAKEN BY FIFTH BUT ENEMY RESISTING STUBBORNLY. IN REMAINING FORTIFIED POSITIONS. LONDON, September 26. On the Fifth Army’s front in Italy, British troops are forging steadily ahead'in their drive from Salerno, and are reported to have captured some heights overlooking Naples. The German resistance is stubborn. The Allied forces advancing west of Salerno are also progressing. 1 • The enemy is fighting in the mountains north and north-east of Salerno for Naples and is being steadily pushed out of his fortified positions. On the east coast of Italy, the Eighth Army has advanced over 20 miles and is now on the edge of the broad plains of Foggia. These plains carry a network of airfields. The Eighth Army is less than 25 miles from Foggia. The country ahead is a natural battleground for tanks, but there are no signs of any great enemy forces in the area. It is reported that airfields near Foggia have already been evacuated. A French communique states that' in Corsica, west and south-west of Bastia the enemy was forced yesterday to make an important withdrawal. , A road crossing within a few miles of Bastia ..has ..been ..captured. ..Heavy losses have been inflicted on the enemy. Yesterday was another big day for Allied aircraft, which bombed communication centres and pounded the enemy over the battle area, besides ranging further afield to attack targets in Corsica, Crete and Rhodes.

KING OF ITALY AND BADOGLIA GOVERNMENT. ESTABLISHED ON MAINLAND. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) LONDON, September 25. King Victor .Emmanuel and the Badoglio Government have established themselves somewhere on the Italian peninsula, from which point They will co-ordinate the resistance against the Germans in occupied Italy. The Swiss telegraph agency has denied a statement from Berlin radio that the Queen and Crown Prince of Italy had arrived in Switzerland and adds that they are probably in Sicily. BASTIA TAKEN — 1 GERMAN ESCAPE PORT IN CORSICA. ANNOUNCEMENT IN ALGIERS (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.40 a.m.) RUGBY, September 26. ' Bastia, in northern Corsica, has been taken, states a communique from French Headquarters ,in Algiers. EXECUTED BY GERMANS ITALIAN LABOUR LEADERS. LONDON, September 26. The Germans report the execution in Italy of the secretary of the Metal Workers’ Federation, who had been released from gaol after the fall of Mussolini, and also another- wellknown Milan trade unionist.