ALLIED PRESSURE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 November 1943, Page 3

ALLIED PRESSURE

MAINTAINED IN SPITE OF BAD WEATHER

MANY KEY POINTS TAKEN.

ATTACKS ON ROAD CENTRES.

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, November 1.

The latest gains of the Fifth and Eighth though slight from the viewpoint of mileage, are important because they involve key points. The Eighth Army continues its relentless pressure on each side of the mountain road toward Isernia, and the Fifth Army is forcing the enemy back from the southerly slopes of Monte Miletto. Both are within 10 miles of Isernia.

A North African communique refers to bad weather in the northern sector of the Eighth Army’s front. Elsewhere our forces have pushed forward to capture the village of Cantalupo, 10 miles south of Isernia, and important high ground near it. Enemy artillery was active in this sector. The Eighth Army also captured Macchiagodena and Frosolone.

The Fifth Army, following the capture of Teano, captured Valle Agricola, to the north, and is fanning out from this point to cut the roads to Venafro and Cassino. It is now approaching Carinola, seven miles north-east of Mondragone. The recent heavy rain is making movements very difficult in the coastal sector. Algiers radio said that floods washed away many Allied bridges, and that engineers are erecting new bridges, in some cases under heavy fire. The Berlin radio admitted tonight that the Germans have evacuated Prattella, south-east of Venafro. LIGHT & POWER RESTORATION IN NAPLES. LONDON, November 1. The whole population of Naples, numbering 500,000, under order from the authorities, evacuated to the hills for 4-J- hours while engineers from the Fifth Army pushed home switches restoring the city’s electric light and power. In the meantime, the city had been as dead as neighbouring Pompeii. It had been feared that the Germans had connected mines and boobytraps to homes and buildings, but nothing untoward happened.