PIVOT TOWN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 November 1943, Page 4

PIVOT TOWN

IN ROAD COMMUNICATIONS OF GERMAN WINTER LINE IN ITALY. TAKEN BY EIGHTH ARMY. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.30 p.m.) LONDON, November 24. The Eighth Army’s capture of Alfedena, a pivot town of Marshal Kesselring’s winter line communications, resulted from a five mile advance. Alfedena controls two main roads northward along the mountain backbone to the highway between Rome and Pescara. The capture of San Angelo, eight miles north-west of Agnone, rewarded a six mile push. Reuter's Algiers correspondent says the Eighth Army has driven a wedge five miles deep into the German Apennine front, and with the capture of San Angelo has made further progress in consolidating its positions on the banks of the Sangro River. (The Cairo radio reports that units of General Montgomery’s infantry have crossed the Sangro).

The Reuter correspondent adds that Italy has been the graveyard of the Luftwaffe chief’s reputation. FieldMarshal Wolfram von Richthofen, whose relations with Kesselring have long been strained, is the latest to be relieved of his command, leaving Kesselring in full charge of the enemy air forces in Italy.