The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-12-09
The War On MonyFronts

Reports of new war1ike maneuverS along the Turko-Bulgarian from tier increased speculation of an inn minent crisis in the Balkans today through the main German defenses as American infantrymen smashed in the mountains below Rome and hard-pressed Russian troops fought of an increasingly heavy German counter offensive west of Kiev.
 Swedish reports, uncon1irmed by Allied sources, said Turkey had sus- pended al ltraffic across the Bull garian border and that 8 state of alarm had been ordered throughout the frontier zone.
 The reports came in the wake of word that the Nazis were massing troops in Bulgaria and along the Black Sea coast to prevent 8 sudden Allied thrust into southeastern Flu rope, and heightened the belief that Turker is on the verge of important military decisions.
 Some clarification of the Situa- tion was expected to come from Turkish President Ismet Inonu when he addresses the parliament in Ankara, possibly today, but ob- servers believed Turkeys decisions would be disclosed in action. United Press dispatches from Ankara and Cairo indicated that tension was increasingly rapidly in Turkey, although 1t was believed the explosion might not come for months.
 Mid-January
 London military observers pre- dicted that the least. west and south offensive promised by the "big three" at their meeting in Teheran-in which Turkey may have been assigned a major role could be expected any time after mid-January. By that time. these observers said, the United Nations will have completed the massing of 5.000,00 men along a vast arc from the British Isles to Russia. The London Daily Herald said Gen. George c. Marshall, U. S. Army chief of staff, was expected to arrive in Great Britain within the next few weeks to take com mand of preparations for an inva- sion of western Europe.
 On the Italian battlefront, mean while, hard-driving American in- fantrymen cleared the Germans from all but two isolated heights in the Camino-Mi ygiore mountain pass and drove down the northern slopes toward the Liri valley, on the road to Rome.
 Screaming, bayonet-wielding Nazis hurled themselves into repeated counter1attacks against the advanc- ing Americans, but front reports said these attacks were beaten down and that the mountains bar ring the main road to the Italian capital had been won.
 Monte CrOce Captured
 British units of the 5th Army moved forward with the Americans against equally bitter enemy resist ance and captured Monte Croce only one mile from the Garigliano river, which joins the Liri just be- yond the north edge of the moun- tainS.
 Savage fighting also was in prog ress on the 8th Army front in east ern Italy, where Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery's forces were driving against a makeshift Nazi line near Orsogno, 10 miles south of the Pes cara river. The German-controlled Paris radio said the 8th Army had reached the vicinity of Ortona, on the coastal road 10 miles below Pes- cara.
 Allied attack planes took advan- tage of clearing weather to bomb and Strafe the enemy lines, while Flying Fortresses battered two Axis held airfields outside Athens and San Stefano harbor in central Italy. Russian Front
 On the Russian front, the Ger man high command hurled tanks and infantry in continuous counter attacks against the Soviet-held sal- lent stretching 70 to 80 miles west of Kiev in a bloody battle to win back the Ukrainian capital and re- establish 8 winter line along the Dnieper river.
 Moscow reports indicated the Nazis were draining reserves from the Reich and occupied countries to reinforce their attack, and the Soviet communique acknowledged that Red Army troops had been forced to withdraw at one point for the second time in little more than 24 hours.
 More than $500 Germans were