ALLIED TROOPS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 October 1943, Page 4

ALLIED TROOPS

MASSED ALONG VOLTURNO PREPARATORY TO ASSAULT. RAIN RESTRICTING MOVEMENT. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.40 p.m.) LONDON, October 12. The Algiers radio stated that the Fifth Army is massing along a 50mile front along the Volturno. Important reinforcements have reached the Allied armies, preparatory to breaking through the German defences before Rome. The Paris radio says the Eighth Army is in contact with German defences on the road from Ermoli to Vasto. The radio also reported that the Allies on the Volturno River had opened up a fierce artillery barrage. Allied reports say rain continues to seriously restrict the moves of the Allied armies in Southern Italy. The Volturno River, already swollen, has overflowed its banks at some points. Nevertheelss, some progress is being made, both by the right wing of the Fifth Army and the left wing of the Eighth Army, towards Vinchiaturo, a vital cross Italy road junction in the Central Appenines. AMERICAN THRUST INTO MOUNTAIN COUNTRY. MAY TURN FLANK OF VOLTURNO LINE. (Received This Day, 12.50 p.m.) LONDON, Otcober 12. A British United Press correspondent reports skirmishing north-west of Teimoli, where some of our patrolling forces have made contact with German tanks which were taking up positions after regrouping. The Eighth Army guns also went into action against enemy forces regrouping after the German defeat in the fight for the Termoli heights. The Fifth Army is now using for supplies one railway line running north from Naples. When the troops moved north, they found a network of railways’ destroyed, mainly by Allied bombing, but finished off by the Germans. The Italians declared that repair was impossible. Our engineers were sceptical, but a line was made up by salvaging odds and ends. Citizens of Rome heard the distant crump of bombs, followed by a menacing glow in the sky, when Allied bombers pounced on a train near the city last night. They riddled it with bullets and finished it off with bombs. Bombers, throughout the night, ranged up and down the road and railway between Rome and Capua, bombing a second train, railway stations and road convoys. The Algiers radio stated that Americans in the past 24 hours have advanced over 14 miles and 1 penetrated deep into the mountainous terrain. General Clark’s army is beginning to turn the flank of the Volturno front, north of Benevento.