IN HARD FIGHTING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 October 1943, Page 3

IN HARD FIGHTING

' FIFTH ARMY ADVANCE TO VOLTURNO FIERCE RESISTANCE OVERCOME BY AMERICANS. COUNTRY IN WATERLOGGED STATE. (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) (Received This Day. 1.20 p.m.) LONDON, October 8. The Fifth Army has swiftly consolidated the positions gained by the capture of Capua by the occupation of a series of towns on the Volturno River line, front line despatches report. It is revealed that the Germans fought fiercely for riverbank positions. American troops flung back powerful counter-attacks and clung to their hard-won captures in the heaviest fighting of the week. The Fifth Army now holds 17 miles of the south bank of the Volturno from Capua to the sea. Over the last ten miles of its advance to the Volturno the Fifth Army fought through heavily water-logged country. Conditions are becoming worse with every day cf the autumn rains. Neary four days of bitter fighting were necessary before enemy nests of resistance between the Aversa and the Volturno River were smashed. The infantry had to labour through quagmires churned by the passage of jeeps, tanks and supply vehicles and pitted by mines. The Allies on the Volturno are now standing along an historic defence line upon which observers believe the decisive battle for Rome will be fought out. The key towns the Allies have occupied, in the consolidation of their main gains, include Santa Maria, an important link in the Naples chain of railways to Rome, and Reggio. The Fifth Army, in the mountainous central sector around Benevento, is still fighting its way forward in face of stiff resistance, it is also facing weather conditions which are steadily becoming worse.