Evening star., 1943-12-01
9th Army Advances to 3 Miles,
Smashing Beyond Songro Ridge;
Gains Also Made by Americans
Three Towns Reported
Taken by British With
Heavy Air Support
By the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
ALLIED HEADQUARTERS
Algiers, Dec. 1.-The British 9th
Army slashed forward beyond
captured Sangro Ridge with the
heaviest air support of the
Italian campaign, Allied head
quarters announced today, and
marked up advances all along
the line of one to three miles in
fierce hand-to-hand fighting.
(The Algiers radio said the 9th
Army had captured Lanciano, six
miles beyond the Sangro and
only about 18 miles from Pescara.
(Castel Frentano and Casoli,
the latter at the southwestern
end of Sangro Ridge, also were
taken, the Algiers station said in
broadcast heard by Reuters)
In the central sector American
troops of the 5th Army advanced
three miles west of Montaquila
through dense mine fields and great
twisted masses of barbed wire. 1t
was the first time in the Mediter-
ranean warfare that barbed wire
had been used so extensively by the
Germans in the manner of the
World War
1T is apparent that the Germans
are not overlooking any trick, old
or new military commentator
said.
Liberators Raid Fiume.
Liberators of the 18th Air Force
swung into action in raid to the
northern tip of the Adriatic which
gave Fiume its first aerial blow of
the war.
The strategic port, captured by
the Germans from Yugoslav Parti-
sans in violent battle soon after
the Italian armistice, has been
transformed by Marshal Erwin Rom
mel into one of his most important
bases for Balkan operations
The advance by Gen. Sir Bernard
L. Montgomery's troops was made
with the support of the British de-
stroyers Quillian and Loyal. which
shelled Nazi positions from the sea,
as we'll as by waves of planes which
attacked German positions.
Nine waves of Allied bombers
and so formations of Allied fighters
and fighter-bombers swept over the
9th Army front and left German
strong points shattered heaps of
rubble.
Fierce Resistance.
The Germans are offering very
fierce resistance for every inch of
ground" a military commentator
said, and as a result are suffering
huge casualties. But they were eX-
pected to make violent efforts to re-
capture Sangro Ridge, their best
defensive position for miles.
tToday's German communique
broadcast from Berlin admitted
"bloody fighting" had taken
place along the Sangro and that
breach several miles deep had
been made in German positions.
CA German military spokesman
was quoted in a DNB broadcast
as saying the British 9Th Army
is going into battle on the Sangro
with very great forces. A numer-
ically far superior enemy air force
is hammering German artillery
positions on the northern slopes
of the mountains of the Sangro
Valley.)
In man-to-man fighting many
bitterly resisting German pocket
which had been left isolated by the
9th Army tide was mopped up by
British, Indian and New Zealand
patrols.
In two small towns alone mopup
squads took about 130 prisoners.
Entire Ridge in Allied Hands.
The Allied command announced
In a special communique last night
that "the whole of the high ridge
which overlooks and dominates the
Sangro Valley is now in our hands.
The two bridgeheads on the Adriatic
side of the coast have been joined
to form one large penetration in the
enemys defensive positions"
The 5th Army advance Clipped off
another piece of the mountain block
barring the road to open valleys
leading to Rome in the area between
Venafro and Alfedena.
In other sectors of the 5th Army
front patrols pushed forward and
at Gallucio, miles southwest of
Venafro, there were heavy artillery
duels.
Weather Improves.
Better weather permitted the
strategic bombardment groups to
swing into action, but the Liberia
tors on the Fiume raid were ham,
pered by clouds in assessing the
damage. They were accompanied by
Lightnings.
BPS Marauders cut the railroad
track and probably hit the railway
bridge at Albania, 80 miles north of
Rome, and slashed the roads near
Foligno and Orvieto in Central Italy.
BY night Raj Bostons bombed and
strafed roads and river craft all the
way from Pescara to Ancona on the
east coast.
The Germans made their strong
est attempt in days to break up the
tactical air forces blows along the
9th Army front and five Focke- -Wulf
e. IL