MOUNTAIN VILLAGES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 November 1943, Page 4

MOUNTAIN VILLAGES

CAPTURED BY THE ALLIES IN ITALY FIGHTING FOR IMPORTANT ROADS POSITION ON ADRIATIC FLANK (By Telegraph—-Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.30 p.m.) LONDON, October 31. Despite heavy rain the Fifth and Eighth armies have made considerable progress in Italy during the last 24 hours. On the western flank, the Eighth Army, after capturing Molise, swung round and has now reached a position ten miles ■ from an important fork on the Isernia Road. Eighth Army units captured two villages 1000 feet up —San Massino, three miles west of Bojano and two miles south of the Isernia Road; also San Elena, seven miles north of Bojano. They dominate to a certain extent a most important road between Bojano and Isernia. North of this bitterly-contested zone the village of Roccavivara, on the south bank of the upper Trigno, 3 • miles south-west of Montefalcone, is completely in our hands. The Eighth Army, as the result of a powerful German counter-at-tack yesterday, yielded some ground of its bridgehead on the extreme right flank, but military observers say the bridgehead is quite secure and that the ground lost does not constitute any immediate threat. The Algiers radio says General Montgomery,' on the Trigno River sector, where the Germans are reported to have sent 25,000 men, has driven to within six miles of the road between Vanto and Isernia. The Eighth Army's coastal column is threatening San Salvo. The Fifth Army has kept up its advance along the whole front, gaining 3 miles in some sectors, and is now only one mile from the important railway town'of Teano, lying under the Massico Ridge. They captured Nocelletto, two miles south-west of Francolise, and also Ailano, north of the Volturno. Fifth Army units, advancing east of the Massico heights, seized an additional position nine miles from the road to Venafro. ’