DEEP WEDGE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 December 1943, Page 3

DEEP WEDGE

DRIVEN BY THE FIFTH ARMY

Into German Mountain Line in Italy

HEAVY FIGHTING IN BAD WEATHER IN ADRIATIC ZONE

POWERFUL ALLIED AIR ATTACKS IN BATTLE AREA AND IN GREECE

LONDON, December !). British and American troops of the Fifth Army now hold all the main heights on the Mount Gamino and Mount Maggiore ridges—positions overlooking two or three miles of the road to Rome between Mignano and C'assino. The Germans still holct the heights beyond Mignano and also lower ground on the slopes of Mounts Camino and Maggiore. The enemy forces are still launching counter-attacks, but these are described as now more in the nature'of delaying actions than anything else. A correspondent describes the capture of Mount Camino as almost a model of the way in which mountain warfare can be carried out. The main factor, as always, is the spirit, endurance and guts of the infantry. As a result of the recent fighting, the Fifth Army has driven a wedge into the centre of the German line. British troops hold the Mount Camino area and Americans are clearing up the Maggiore ridge. British troops have recaptured a village on the southern slopes of Mount Carnino. This village had changed hands several times recently. The latest advance has taken the British troops three miles to the north-west of. the village. The Allies, as stated, command the first few miles of the road to Rome between Mignano and Cassino. Just across the road, the Germans still hold important heights beyond, Maggiore., American troops are wiping out strongpoints one by one. . The Germans say Italian troops are now fighting with the Americans on one sector of the Italian front. While the weather has improved on the Fifth Army front, it is still bad on the Adriatic side of the peninsula, where heavy rain continues. The Eighth Army is in action all along a 15-mile stretch of the Morro River, inland from the Adriatic coast. General Montgomery’s troops are fighting their way forward in a battle on the outskirts of three villages. The Germans are reported to have been using flame-throwing tanks as well as infantry, in a series of desperate counter-attacks. The Allies took some prisoners, including members of a German Alpine corps. This was the first sign that these specialists in mountain fighting had been brought into the front line in Italy. Allied aircraft made heavy attacks yesterday on German positions in the battle area and behind it. Two airfields near Athens were attacked heavily by American Flying Fortresses and Liberators, many enemy aircraft being wrecked and set on fire on the ground.