MUCH BOOTY
CAPTURED BY FIFTH ARMY IN ITALY AIR ATTACKS ON ENEMY IN AEGEAN AND IN SOUTHERN GREECE (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.0 a.m.) RUGBY, December 22. A correspondent with the Fifth Army says heavy rain, and in some places belts of fog, restricted the activity of the Fifth Army from Tuesday, although on the previous night an artillery concentration was put down in the San Vittore area, north of the recently captured village of San Pietro, in the Mignano gap. It appears that the Germans are withdrawing to a line behind the River Rapido. Booty captured by the British in their assault on Mount Camino is now being counted, and though much still remains uncounted, the material includes eight 75 millimetre guns, 75 machineguns and mortars, a five-ton half-track vehicle loaded with mines, and large stores of equipment. Operations against enemy shipping in the Aegean have been carried out day and night during the past week, announces the Headquarters of the R.A.F. in the Middle East. Bad weather has made the observation of results difficult, but a number of small ships attempting to supply enemy-occu-pied islands have been successfully attacked by bombers of the R.A.F. and United States Air Force. On Tuesday night, R.A.F. heavy bombers attacked the dockyard at Salamis, in Southern Greece, bursts were observed hear anti-aircraft defences and on other targets. Two enemy aircraft, a Heinkel 115 and a Junkers 88, were destroyed.
ANOTHER COUNTER=ATTACK SMASHED COMPLETELY BY NEW ZEALANDERS SAVAGE FIGHTING ON ADRIATIC FRONT (Received This Day, 1.0 p.m.) LONDON, December 22. The New Zealanders completely smashed another German counterattack aimed at driving them back across the road between Ortona and Orsogna in Eastern Italy, says the Algiers radio. German flamethrowers, shooting out tongues of flames fifty yards long, led the counter-attacking infantry and tanks. Fierce fighting is occurring all along the front between Ortona and Orsogna. The Berlin radio tonight stated that the Germans in Ortona, after yielding some hundreds of yards of ground, took up new positions on the fringe of the city. They had previously been subjected to a very heavy barrage, lasting for three hours, and had had to face attacks supported by tanks. Reuter’s correspondent with the Eighth Army reports that Ortona is being taken from the Germans house by house and street by street. The Canadians were stealthily creeping in across enemy-held positions and defences before they attacked, with tanks and mortars, on Monday evening. They were well into Ortona by midday yesterday. Mopping up will be a slow process. German machine-gunners and snipers are likely to cause considerable trouble and the whole area is thickly sown with mines and booby traps.
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Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 December 1943, Page 4
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445MUCH BOOTY Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 December 1943, Page 4
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