MET & BROKEN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 November 1943, Page 3

MET & BROKEN

WAVE AFTER WAVE OF ENEMY ATTACKS VAIN ATTEMPTS TO DESTROY BRIDGEHEAD. WATER BARRIER HURDLED. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, 10.25 a.m.) LONDON, November 25. Wave after wave of German infantrymen, supported by heavy artillery, poured down from the thousand foot heights north of the Sangro in a vain endeavour to oust the Eighth Army units from their 5 J miles long and 1J miles deep bridgehead, states Reuter’s Algiers correspondent.

Eighth Army troops, despite opposition, waded waist-deep across the icecold Sangro to reinforce the first assault spearhead. Although the bridgehead was only established in the past few days, the Eighth Army firmly holds the main road from the coast and has a strong grip on the flat 54- miles coastal stretch.

The Eighth Army advance along a front of 16 miles on the upper Sangro Valley threatens the whole centre of the German winter line. Before the Eighth Army forces is the road to Pescara, barred by strong German defences situated in the thousand foot high villages of Santa Maria and Foccacsia. Allied planes at present are successfully concentrating against these defences. A pall of black smoke hangs over the German defences as a result of a daylong air bombardment yesterday. The Associated Press Algiers correspondent declares that the last big water barrier short of the “backdoor to Rome” has been hurdled under the worst possible conditions, with heavy rain making the ground a quagmire.