CANADIAN TROOPS OF EIGHTH ARMY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 December 1943, Page 3

CANADIAN TROOPS OF EIGHTH ARMY

In Adriatic Coastal Zone I MORE GAINS ON FIFTH ARMY FRONT ENEMY MAIN DEFENSIVE BARRIER WEAKENED IF NOT BROKEN LONDON, December 10. Canadian troops of the Eighth Army are advancing up the east coast of Italy towards Pescara, the Adriatic terminus j of: the main cross-country road to Rome, after driving the Germans back from the Moro River line. The Canadians opened their offensive, on a front of s wen or eight, miles on Wednesday. The Germans put up a stiff resistance at a village some miles inland from the coast, but nau to fall back, though still fighting hard. On the Fifth Army front, British and American forces on both sides of the highway to Rome have advanced to within seven miles of the town of Cassino. The town of Mignano is now well behind the Allied line. A correspondent says the Fifth Army has seriously weakened, if it has not broken, the enemy’s main defensive barrier on the most direct route to Rome. The Allies have captured war material which the enemy diet not have time to destroy. It included guns, machine-guns, transport vehicles and a large number of mines. No official estimate is yet available of enemy casualties, but an Allied staff officer says the 15th Panzer Grenadier Division has been very severely mauled. Although the weather was not particularly good ior flying yesterday Allied aircraft bombed and machine-gunned roads, troop concentrations and other targets. Medium and light bombers attacked enemy targets north of Rome.