FURTHER GAINS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 November 1943, Page 3

FURTHER GAINS

MADE BY ALLIES IN ITALY IMPORTANT TOWN CAPTURED BY FIFTH ARMY MENACE TO GERMAN RETREAT (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, November 1. Further progress is reported on the Italian front, where the Allies have captured Teano, the loss of which deprives the Germans of a railhead important to their retreat northward. Teano-is 10 miles inland from Mondragone, north of the mouth of the Volturno River. The Fifth Army, forcing the Germans back step by step, now commands strategic positions from which it can either storm or by-pass Field-Marshal Rommel’s line, on the Massico heights, which is the last defensive position before Rome, says dispatches from Allied headquarters. The Fifth Army gains in a three miles’ advance provide positions from which may be launched one of the decisive offensives of the Italian campaign. The Allies are slowly and determinedly edging their way toward the Massico line, where it stretches from the Mondragone area 28 miles inland to Venafro, the north-eastern anchor of the German line, which is already threatened by the Fifth Army’s advances in the upper Volturno valley. The Fifth Army has captured Nocelletto, two miles south-west of Francolishe, and also Ailano, north of the Volturno. Units of the Fifth Army, advancing east of the Massico heights, seized an additional position nine miles from the road to Venafro. Berlin radio tonight revealed that the Germans have evacuated Frosinone. Allied headquarters disclosed that British and American casualties in the Fifth Army, including killed, wounded and missing, have been approximately equal since the Salerno landing. Casualties are said to be on a “moderate scale.”

The Eighth Army is fighting through the hills toward Isernia. The western flank of the Eighth Army, after capturing Molise, swung round an,d has now reached a position 10 miles from an important fork on the Isernia road. Units of the Eighth Army captured two villages 1000 feet up—San Massino, three miles west of Bojano and two miles south of the Isernia road, and also San Elena, seven miles north of Bokani. They dominate to a certain extent the 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, three miles south-west of Montefalcone, is completely in our hands.

The Eighth Army, as a result of a powerful German counter-attack yesterday, yielded some of the ground of the bridgehead on the extreme right flank, but military observers say that the bridgehead is quite secure and that the ground lost does not constitute an immediate threat.

Reuter’s correspondent with the Eighth Army says that the Germans have concentrated all the forces they could muster to hold back the Eighth Army’s threatened coastal push outflanking the mountain line. The correspondent says that no alarm was felt at the reverse when the British were forced to give up some ground. Algiers radio says that General Montgomery, on the Trigno River sector, where the Germans are reported to have sent 25,000 men, has driven towithin six miles of the road between Vanto and Isernia. An Eighth Army coastal column is threatening San Salvo. STRIKING AHEAD ALLIED BOMBERS & FIGHTERS ATTACKS AGAINST ITALIAN RIVIERA LONDON, October 31. Air Force communiques show that bombers and fighters are striking far ahead of the armies against the Italian Riviera, which is only 100 miles from Corsica. Correspondents referring to this chain of harbours as an “invasion coast” point out that they are linked by a vital road and railway which is Germany’s southern Franco-Italian lifeline. Bad weather did not interfere with the Allied air offensive over Italy yesterday. Our fighters attacked shipping off the Italian coast. Light bombers and fighter-bombers swept over the battle area attacking gun positions, bridges, troop concentrations, and military transport, while medium bombers pounded railway yards south-east of Rome. The highlight, was a series of big raids by Allied heavy, bombers on a string of forts round the Gulf of Genoa. Fortresses went to three new targets at Savona, Isferia and Porto Maurizio. Big iron and steel works, marshalling yards and a harbour were attacked. FRESH TARGETS ANOTHER RAILWAY VIADUCT. ITALIAN HARBOURS ATTACKED. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.5 a.m.) RUGBY, November 1. Heavy bombers of the North-West African Air Force found fresh targets in another railway viaduct near Cannes. The communique reporting this adds: “Yesterday medium bombers attacked Italian harbours at Civita, Vecchia and Anzio, scoring direct hits on warehouses, oil storage tanks and railway quays. Long-range fighters attacked airfields at Tirana, in Albania. During these operations two enemy aircraft were destroyed. None of our aircraft is missing.” BAD WEATHER , ALLIED OPERATIONS IMPEDED. SOME IMPORTANT GAINS. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.5 a.m.) RUGBY, November 1. The weather conditions continue to impede operations in Italy but further Allied progress, including an advance within ten miles of Isernia are recorded in a North African communique, which states: “There is bad weather in the northern sector of the Eighth Army front and elsewhere. Our forces have pushed forward to capture the village of Cantalupo and important high ground near it. Enemy artillery

was active in this sector and enemy resistance in a certain sector of the Fifth Army front was strong but further progress has been made by our troops. The important road centre of Teano (road and rail junction a dozen miles north-east of Mondragone) was captured and elsewhere more ground, offering good observation, was taken. Recent heavy rains are making movements very difficult in the- coastal sector.”