FALLING DOWN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 November 1943, Page 4

FALLING DOWN

GERMAN DEFENSIVE FRONT IN WESTERN ITALY ACCORDING TO HEADQUARTERS SPOKESMAN ACHIEVEMENTS OF FIFTH ARMY (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.50 a.m.) LONDON, November 3. The British United Press quotes a spokesman at Allied Headquarters as saying that the German line acrcss the western half of the Italian peninsula is falling down before the Allied pressure. The Germans are making an orderly withdrawal, after suffering losses in a delaying action. The Fifth Army is now able to shell Venafro and Isernia. According to the Vichy radio the Fifth Army in the Teano area has thrown in a large number of tanks. Reuter says the Allies’ capture of key ridges on San Croce was a remarkable feat. General Clark’s men covered 51 miles in rough going over a winding, country road, which climbed more steeply as it neared the summit. They were under vicious machine-gun and mortar fire throughout. Better weather on the Adriatic coast has enabled the Eight Army to extend its bridgehead on the Trigno River, opposite Salsalvo. British and Canadian forces, in another crossing farther south, established a second good bridgehead. One of the most violent explosions of the Italian campaign occurred at Avezzano, north-east of Rome, when Spitfires, with cannon and machine-guns, blew up a German petrol train, estimated to have contained 100,000 gallons of petrol. A vast area of flames was still visible when the Spitfires arrived at their base, 80 miles away. . The Fifth Army, having fought its way up the heights and thrown the Germans from key positions, now threatens to burst through the western mountain line which bars the roads to Rome, says Reuter’s correspondent at Allied Headquarters. The dominating heights of the Massico Ridge, whose capture is essential for a further advance, are now largely in Allied hands. Across the valley of the Appian Way, the Fifth Army has also seized positions almost on the summit of the 3,280 feet high Mount San Croce, above Teano. General Clark’s troops, from positions on ‘these two heights, command a stretch of the Appian Way curling between mountains. Perhaps even more important, they now have complete observation of the marshy Gariglone Plain, beyond the' Mpssico Ridge, over which the Germans must retreat. Moreover, the Fifth Army, from the Matese Mountains, is now overlooking Venafro and the country beyond. Finally, the Allies’ capture of the village of Pratella, which the 'Germans earlier claimed they had evacuated, enables the Allies to advance along a road which cuts the vital highway linking Venafro and Isernia. Pratella is within eight miles of Venafro.