AGAINST STRONG GERMAN OPPOSITION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 October 1943, Page 3

AGAINST STRONG GERMAN OPPOSITION

Fifth and Eighth Armies in Italy POSITIONS CAPTURED AND COUNTER-ATTACKS THROWN BACK MANY EFFECTIVE BLOWS STRUCK BY ALLIED AIR FORCES LONDON, October 22. In Italy, the Fifth and Eighth armies are steadily improving their positions in the face of strong German counter-attacks. American forces of the Fifth Army have advanced over five miles on a front of four miles on the line of the Upper Volturno and captured two more towns. They straightened the Allied N The two towns captured are on high ground within 20 miles of a strong .German communication centre opposite the Fifth Army. . ' The Americans were no sooner in one town than the Germans strongly counter-attacked, hoping to find the Americans unprepared. The latter, however, were ready and the attack was flung back. The other big counter-attack of the day was across a boggy coastal area against British troops on the north side of the Volturno. Artillery broke up this attack almost as soon as it had started. On the Central Apenines, 15 miles north-east of the Americans’ right flank, Eighth Army troops are operating from high ground overlooking a road. For the second day running strong Allied air formations attacked targets around Rome. Sixteen enemy planes, including six dive-bombers, were shot down for the loss of a single plane. , . German air bases in the Aegean were again attacked by E.A.F. bombers, which made another raid on the airfield of Maritza in Rhodes. For the second time this week, bombers also went to Yugoslavia and bombed railway yards on one of the main lines running to Greece. In an attempted attack on an Allied convoy off the North African coast, four enemy aircraft were destroyed and others were damaged.