DEEPLY PENETRATED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 December 1943, Page 3

DEEPLY PENETRATED

GERMAN WINTER DEFENCE LINE IN ITALY

Important High Ground North of Sangro Taken by Eighth Army ENEMY ALMOST CLEARED OF COMMANDING RIDGE AFTER 36 HOURS OF HEAVY & CONTINUOUS FIGHTING LONDON, November 30. After 36 hours of heavy and continuous fighting; the Eighth Army has fought its way into the main German winter defence line on high ground north-west of the Sangro River. A communique, giving this news, says the bridgehead across the river has been enlarged to a depth of four miles, and a width of 12 miles. The advance continues. It is anticipated that the enlarged bridgehead in the coastal zone will soon be joined up with the second one established by the Eighth Army 14 miles inland from the Adriatic coast. A front line correspondent describes*how General Montgomery’s men took their first real bite out of the German winter line. At dawn on Sunday morning, he says, the Eighth Army artillery barrage rose to new heights in the bombardment of a ridge about five miles long and up to 1,000 feet in height, constituting the eastern anchor of the German defence line across Italy. Before the morning was far advanced our troops had fought their way well up the slopes of this ridge. Another report says that the Eighth Army is now making great progress towards clearing the enemy right off his anchor ridge. On the Fifth Army’s front, in spite of bad weather, American troops have advanced a mile and captured a village.

BATTLE IN MORASS

GRIM & DESOLATE SETTING TROOPS STANDING IN MUD. CHEER ON ATTACKING BOMBERS. —— t (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, November 30. The “Daily Telegraph” correspondent, writing from an advanced airfield on the Eighth Army front on Sunday, stated that British infantry in forward positions on Saturday, standing kneedeep in mud that was reminiscent of Flanders, cheered as the waves of bombers, passed overhead in the intensified attack against the enemy positions. It was from the skies that the most complete picture of the grim, desolate setting of our push was obtained, and pilots gave a vivid description of the macabre panorama. “We take off our hats to the infantry,” said a Kittybomber pilot, Flight Sergeant T. A. Gillard, Morrinsville, as he returned from an attack against a road leading northward from the battlefront. Gillard and a fellow pilot, Flight Sergeant O. C. P. Cross, Auckland, told the correspondent that the Sangro River was like a dirty yellow ribbon over a countryside which days of rain had churned into a morass.

NEW ZEALAND HOSPITAL

ESTABLISHED IN ITALIAN CITY. (Official War Correspondent, N.Z.E.F.) SOUTHERN ITALY, November 28. The already much-travelled Second N.Z.E.F. General Hospital has once again unpacked its belongings many miles from its previous location. It is now fully established in a city in southern Italy. This same hospital for the past seven months has been near Tripoli, North Africa, under canvas. The majority of the patients were British, as the division moved back to Egypt soon after the hospital’s arrival. Now the hospital is quartered in modern buildings comparable with those of a civil hospital in New Zealand. Immediately on their arrival the whole staff, including sisters and W.A.A.C.’s, began cleaning and scrubbing the' place. By night on the fourth day 200 beds were available, and the X-ray plants, laboratory, dispensary and operating theatres were ready. Much organisation is necessary in the setting up of a fully-equipped military hospital, but when I visited this one a few days ago I found patients comfortably installed and the whole hospital routine working smoothly. General Freyberg has taken great interest in the starting of this hospital, and has paid several visits.