MORE PROGRESS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 October 1943, Page 3

MORE PROGRESS

MADE BY ALLIED ARMIES IN ITALY VIGOROUS AIR ATTACKS. CONTINUED AGAINST ENEMY COMMUNICATIONS. LONDON, October 27. More progress is recorded ou the lialian IToid by both the Fifth and Ihe Eighth armies. The Eighth Army has pushed forward in places another three to four miles and the Fifth Army has made a further advance in the Upper Volturno Valley. The Allied air forces continue their vigorous offensive against enemy communications. EIGHTH ARMY THRUST GERMANS HOURLY EXPECTING NEW LANDING. (Received This Day, 10.25 a.m.) LONDON, October 27. An Eighth Army mobile column is rapidly approaching Vasto. German resistance is stiffer elsewhere along their new shortened line, says the Algiers radio. The Allies, according to the Vichy radio, are exerting intense pressure in the Sparanise sector, where the Germans are hourly expecting now Allied landings. SAVAGE CRIMES COMMITTED BY RETREATING GERMANS. VILLAGERS MURDERED. LONDON. October 26. A story of German terrorism in the Italian village of Sparanise, on the Fifth Army front, before its capture is told by a correspondent of the British United Press. “The village changed hands several times before the final capture,” he said. “The Germans used it as a distributing centre for prisoners captured from the Fifth Army, and the local stationmaster said that many of the villagers helped prisoners to escape and hid them in cellars. The Germans issued a proclamation threatening death for harbouring Allied soldiers. ‘"The first British patrol entered the village about this time, and the inhabitants got drunk with joy and hugged and kissed the Britishers. The Germans' returned, and the inhabitants then refused to obey their orders. The Germans started machine-gunning and burning. They ordered 20 Italians to leave an air-raid shelter and turned machine-guns on them as they left, killing seven.” ALLIES IN CORSICA GERMAN FEAR INVASION OF FRANCE. OR LANDING'NORTH OF ROME. LONDON, October 27. A large Allied force, including units of the British First Army, is assembling in Corsica possibly for an invasion of the French Riviera or an attack on the Italian mainland north of Rome, according to German reports reaching Berne. GERMANS UNEASY THINNING OUT NORTH OF TRIGNO. INEFFECTIVE ENEMY AIR RAIDS. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.35 a.m.) RUGBY, October 27. “Fighting patrols of the Eighth Army continue to give the enemy little rest and are constantly probing from the bridgeheads they have established across the Trigno River,” says a correspondent with the Eighth Army. These bridgeheads are near Petaccia. “Although our patrols in this area are meeting little resistance except from a few machine-gun and mortar posts on the northern side of the river, our troops at other points on the southern side of the river arc meeting increased opposition from enemy rearguards, consisting chiefly of self-pro-pelled guns, which the Germans switch about cleverly among the hills.” the correspondent adds. “Our troops on the northern side of the river are meeting fewer infantry patrols, which would appear to indicate that the enemy is using artillery while he thins his infantry lines preparatory to withdrawing them towards the River Sango, which is the next natural obstacle after the Trigno. “The Luftwaffe, of which very little has been seen by the Eighth Army since it landed in Italy, has been more in evidence in the past couple of days, and although these activities are confined to high-speed in and out raids on cur forward troops, they are a further indication of German uneasiness. These raids have been carried out during the night, on villages in the mountains—not a very easy target at night, as the Germans have illustrated.” A correspondent at Allied Headquarters in North Africa says it is considered that it would be unwise to ignore the possibility that the Germans may yet be able to launch a stronger and more general counter-attack than they have yet attempted.