RAPID ADVANCE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 September 1943, Page 4

RAPID ADVANCE

ANTICIPATED ON NAPLES PLAIN CONVERGING allied attack AFTER BATTLE FOR MOUNTAIN GATEWAY (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 12.20 p.m.) RUGBY, September 29. A correspondent in Italy says: “There are no indications that enemy forces have been cut off or that large numbers of prisoners have been taken, but our territorial gain has been very great. We are now on the coastal plain and our advance is likely to be rapid. While the left flank of the Fifth Army was battling its way forward, yard by yard, through the hills south of Naples, the right flank drove towards the inward side of the Naples plain and the key communication centre of Avelino.” '"A later report from the United Nations radio says: We have already occupied San Angelo, due east of the town and the Germans tonight admit the evacuation of a number of places on the road to it. With the right and left flanks of the Fifth Army closing in on Naples from two sides, and the Eighth Army moving rapidly ahead against weak enemy resistance beyond Foggia and far to the east, the Germans are left with no alternative but a retreat from the Naples plain. A correspondent points out that the comprehensive destruction carried out by the enemy in Naples indicates clearly that they don’t intend to hold the city or to return to it. He thinks it is unlikely that they will put up any important resistance to our advance on Naples, apart from light delaying actions and demolitions. The Allied lineis likely to change quickly in the near future. The heaviest fighting of the day occurred at Sala, three miles south-west of .Nocera, which had already changed hands several times in the past few days. Here the Germans put up a determined counter-attack, which was repelled. Immediately the pass was won, Allied tanks climbed over the mountains to the Naples plain. General Clark’s army moved forward along its entire front, from the west coast to the centre of Italy. The advance in the mountains above Salerno was two miles and in other sectors six miles. The Eighth Army also swung forward from the Fifth Army’s flank to the Adriatic, capturing Zapponeta, on the coast east of Foggia. British officers, summing up the battle of the Caramel Pass, said to a Reuter correspondent: “It’s been a bloody- fight, but bloodier for them than for us.” Explosions shook Caramella village as the Germans blew up roads ahead. There are still snipers in the houses. The Berlin radio tonight admitted the loss of three places north and northwest of Salerno not mentioned from British sources, namely Baronissi, Montoro and Castel San Giorgio. SIXTH OF ITALY NOW IN ALLIED HANDS. GERMANS TRYING TO GET OUT OF NAPLES. (Received This Day, 12.45 p.m.) LONDON, September 30. One-sixth of Italy is now in Allied hands. The Germans are trying to get out of Naples as quickly as they can in gpod ordeV, and to leave as little as possible intact. A military spokesman at Allied headquarters stressed that there is no suggestion that the Germans are retreating in disorder. Military observers in London believe the Germans will attempt to maxe their next stand along the Volturno River, 20 miles north of Naples. The German rearguard in the mountains protecting the Naples plain had to be bayoneted, bombed and blasted from their strongpoints. A British United Press correspondent reports that the Fifth Army, in a spectacular break through the German hedgehog system, seized six principal townships or villages and also at least twenty other small villages. The infantry at dawn yesterday, after an allout barrage with 25-pounders and other guns, swept through the hills down to the plains and the Bay of Naples. The Fifth Army, by striking through the hills, by-passed Sorrento Equinas, which has also fallen to us, with the entire Sorrento Peninsula, , measuring approximately 75 square miles. The Germans, as our attack developed, .."withdrew from their positions on the The Fifth Army also struck ■■but cast and north-east, capturing “Xcerno, about 20 miles east of Salerno; Monte Marano, three miles north .of “-Gassano and Torella, about 40 miles north-east of Salerno. At the first light of dawn yesterday, the Fifth Army moved forward in rain, which was the first since the Allied .landing, says Reuter. They fought their way down the tortuous Caramel Pass "and by noon had captured Nocera. The naval base of Castellamare, 14 miles across the bay from Naples, fell shortly afterwards. Castellamare has shipbuilding and repair facilities and a population of about 45,000. The Berlin radio admitted that the Fifth Army had captured Pompeii and added that British naval units were approaching Naples and that the battle for the city was becoming fiercer. According to the Algiers radio, battleships are shelling German positions around the base of Vesuvius. With reference to a Mutual Broadcasting System report saying that Allied forces were in the suburbs of Naples, Reuter now gives the full quotation: “The Fifth Army has captured Castellamare, which is 17| miles from Naples, but where the suburbs of Naples may be said to begin.”