HEAVY BATTLE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 November 1943, Page 4

HEAVY BATTLE

IN PROSPECT ON RIVER SANGRO BROAD WATERWAY AND STRONG DEFENCES. FACED BY THE EIGHTH ARMY. (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.10 a.m.) LONDON, November 8. The Eighth Army, massed along heights dominating the Sangro Valley, started shelling the German defences at dusk yesterday. This ■ strong river line, guarding the road to Pescara, is the broadest water line the Eighth Army has faced in Italy. The Eighth Army must fight the heaviest engagemen 4 - of its Italian campaign in order to cross the • river and to establish bridgeheads. General Montgomery’s men raced forward from their Trigno bridgeheads to the edge- of the high ground overlooking the broad Sangro Valley. Then, having completed the Trigno crossing, the Eighth Army’s tanks and infantry reached high ground in the area of Casalbordino. The Germans hit back in a stiff delaying action. However, it was only a temporary check to the Eighth Army. The Germans are now massed on the north bank of the Sangro-. Meantime, on the other side of Italy, the Germans appear to be preparing to evacuate Port Gaeta. Allied troops in the Fifth Army front line, nine miles across the bay from Gaeta, can hear explosions similar to those heard before the Germans evacuated Naples. Farther inland, Allied troops who captured Calabrito are now approaching the Garigliano, at a point where the river swerves northward. The Fifth Army’s right flank north of Venafro had to meet determined counter-attacks made with fresh troops. Our advance on the heights west of Isernia has been difficult, but our line has advanced several miles north-west of Isernia. RAPID ADVANCE BRITISH TROOPS ON HIGH LOOKING DOWN ON BROAD VALLEY. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.25 a.m.) RUGBY, November 8. ■“At dusk this evening (Sunday), Eighth Army tank crews and infantrymen could look down from high ground on to the wide valley of the Sangro River,” cables a correspondent with the Eighth Army. “In assaults and fast pursuits they had driven the main German forces across the river into prepared defences this afternoon. As one column pressed on through Casalbordino, another moved down a lateral road, driving the Germans west Of the road into difficult mountain country further west. Still another column swung an armoured punch into the hills beyond Scerni and Paglieta. There was little German resistance save for accurate mortar and machine-gun Are oh the road from determined little groups left behind and abandoned in the hills. As I ran the gauntlet of their mortar fire on a mountain road early this morning, I knew that” the bridges across the Sangro River, behind them, had already been blown up. The weather broke tonight into heavy rain, which may well affect the speed with which the Eighth Army can assault the Sangro line. The Germans are said to have employed thousands of Italian civilians, as well as their own soldiers, in building a line of trenches and weapon pits along the high ground running about five miles back from the Sangro River. The Eighth Army faces the widest river it has had to cross in Italy, and possibly the heaviest fighting.”