Evening star., 1943-10-14

aged to cross the river and gain
brief foothOld on the edges OF the
town controlling the main road to
Rome.
Every Unit Driven Back.
But Gen. Clark and his seasoned
warriors were ready and drove back
every German unit which had
crossed to the south bank and then
launched their own heavy offensive
at many points both east and west
of Capua.
'Ine German communlQue,
announcing that strong British
American forces had attacked,
declared that the assault col
lapsed' but inferentiallv admitted
that brldgeheads had been estab-
lished by saving that fierce
struggles were still in progress
in some places
The Germans threw their carefully
boarded fighter plane strength into
the fray. One formation of l6 Mes
SerSchmlttS was beaten off by Spit
fires, which shot down two and
damaged many more.
SWarms of day and night bombers
from Allied airdromes supported the
great drive, hitting at communi-
cations. highways. bridges and troop
concentrations and enemy airhelds.
Bridges Set Up.
Combat engineers who went into
action with the assault forces quickly
established temporary bridges un-
der fire as soon as infantry footholds
had been gained on the north bank
Of the Volturno and tanks rushed
across
The swift movements of tanks and
guns prevented the Germans from
sealing off the danger point and
permitted the formation of a steel
wedge which threatened to trap
large numbers of their forces still
holding the Volturno line near the
liver's mouth and in the corner TO
the east at the confluence of the
Volturno and Galore
The German divisions now In
line were showing signs of extreme
fatigue and their morale was bound
to suffer now that Gen. Clark had
smashed the positions they perhaps
hoped to make into strong winter
defense line.
With only seven divisions arrayed
against the 5th and 9th Armies, it
was obvious that the Germans had
too few troops to make a really firm
stand even along the Gaeta-Pescara
line to the north. where rough
mountains would favor a defense.
Confronted With Choice.
They seemed confronted, there
tore. with the choice of either at
tempting to bring south some of
the divisions north of Rome or of
rellnquishing the Italian capital and
all the political prestige which goes
with its retention.
The German attack on Capua. lust
preceding the Allied offensive. was
typical Nazi tactic, and apparently
tailed because Allied -bombers
went into action and pinned down
concentrations of enemy armor and
guns so effectively they were unable
10 move to the support of the assault
troops.
Capua nestles within a horseshoe
bend on the south bank of the river
which almost envelopes the town.
The Germans apparently hoped to
cut OIL the town by striking swiftly
across the neck of land on the east
and west sides and then to establish
their own bridgehead at the top of
the bend
When Gen. Clark's bridgeheads
were finally established the Germans
were unable to employ single tank
against them.
Albanian Capital Raided.
Meanwhile, emphasizing with
dramatic force the value of new air
bases gained in Italy. Mitchell
bombers with Lightning escort ex-
tended the Allied aerial sway across
the Adriatic to Albania where thev
bombed the Albania capital of Ii
rama for the first time.
The raid apparently caught the
Germans by surprise for photo
graphs showed heavy damage had
been done to aircraft parked on the
alrf1eld. Workshops. material dumps,
barracks and other buildings were
flaming as the bombers raced for
home
With the lifting of storm clouds
which had kept large part of the
Allied air forces grounded for sew
eral days, American and British air.
men paced the ground drive on
Rome with smashing series of at
tackS m roi1uou liy,ae NM, ,vo,,o;e.