IMPORTANT NEW GAINS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 December 1943, Page 3

IMPORTANT NEW GAINS

MADE BY CANADIANS. HEIGHTS DOMINATING ORTONA CAPTURED. (Received This Day, 10.40 a.m.) . LONDON, December 13. Canadian shock troops of the Eighth Army, pressing back German forces 40,000 strong, massed on the 15 miles Moro River front, have made important new gains, say the latest dispatches from the Italian front. The Eighth Army now holds dominating heights two miles south of Ortona, which is the coastal bulwark of the German line. These new successes have given the Eighth Army gun sites commanding the German positions. It is thought that the battle now being fought out in the three miles wide no man’s land and north of the Moro must vitally affect the fate of Pescara. The prize of this battle is a great motor road to Rome. Reutei- reports that the Eighth Army is now close to the Ortona-Orsogna-Guardigrele Road, preventing the Germans using it. NAZI FOUL TACTICS FIRE OPENED ON CANADIAN PLATOON FOLLOWING ON ENEMY SURRENDER (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) LONDON, December 12. Following an incident which occurred on Friday, the Canadian commander of the Morro River sector has sent a message to his men advising caution when capturing prisoners. The incident occurred north of San Leonardo. The Germans put up a stiff fight against a Canadian platoon. The Germans eventually surrendered, but when the Canadians attempted to round up the prisoners, German machine-gunners opened fire from ambush and wiped out the platoon. FORCES IN ITALY MAJORITY OF BRITISH UNITS NEW YORK, December 13. Contrary to most American notions, the British are supplying the majority of troops in Italy, says the “New York Times” correspondent, Hanson Baldwin. The two British corps in the Eighth Army are composed, as far as is known, of an Indian division, the 78th Division, possibly an airborne division, a Canadian division, a New Zealand division, and an unidentified British infantry division. There is one British corps in the Fifth Army composed of two British infantry divisions and the Seventh Armoured Division. Mr Baldwin says that the Allies have numerical superiority, but the most important contributing factors to our advance are greater masses of equipment, particularly field artillery, and great air superiority.