The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-12-24
The Wor On
 Many Fronts

Allied Armies in Russia and Italy Oshered in Germany'S blackest Christmas Eve of the war today, as Pope Plus XII warned in Christ mas message to the world tf.at there is no hope for 8 sudden end to the conflict.
 Berlin's week-long respite ended explosively in the early morning Gerkness when hundreds of the Roy- al Air Forces giant bombers heaped more than 1000 tons of high ex- in niosives and fire bombs on the bat 2cred city in defiance of Nazi threats lpf retaliation against airmen who barticipate in terror" attacks on tl'c Reich
 f Delaying their take-off until mid night to catch Berlin's fighter de- kenses off guard, the British raiders ket great fires raging through Berlin land returned with relatively minor kosses-17 bombers shot down in the ebig assault and in subsidiary attacks pn central and western Germany. ' Tt was the 97th raid of the war lon Berlin and the first since the RATs 1,500 ton assault on the city Epn Dec. 16.
 Heavies Join
 During that interval. the British a1eavieS joined in four-day bomb Jang offensive against the coast of Northern France, where neutral re- bports said the Germans were build tang rocket gun emplacements for a lhombardment of England.
 fv1 frIo |. Enew rocket guns opened for the first Itime last night to beat off 8 com Joined attack by British long-range ,coastal guns, torpedo boats and war Iplanes on Nad convoy in the Eng Ilish channel.
 British, French and American &roOps continued on the attack all I@crosS the Italian battlefront in the Mace of savage German resistance that forced 8 slight withdrawal on lone sector of the American front. lGen. Sir Bernard l.. Montgomery's 18th Army Forces again spearheaded kthe Allied offensive, ripping deeper Unto the Adriatic flank of the enemy lEine.
 The Sth Army veterans battered kAway at German suicide squads lholding out desperately in the north Iwestern outskirts of Ortona, where ,the Nazis were fighting to the last man in an effort to retain a toehold dn that coastal anchor of their Adri- atic defenSes. Other British units lcaptured the village of Vezanni, Ethree miles south of Ortona, and Idrove into the outskirts of Villa IGrande, two miles further inland.
 Hill Yielded
 American 5th Army troops to the west fought through a driving rain storm to capture more high ground in the Acquafindala sector above Casino, on the Rome road, but yielded hill three mlles to the south under increasingly -heavy enemy counter attacks.
 American Marauder bombers hammered the coastal railroad on l&he Italian Riviera in daylight EioSs at Cne German supply lines from southern France.
 Violent battles of attack and eounter-attack swirled across a broad front in Russia, and Moscow reports indicated that the Nazis had been driven back at all points The Russian communique revealed that fighting again was raging in the Korosten sector at the north west end of the Kiev salient, sug- gesting that the Red Army had re- traced most of the 25-mile retreat forced upon it by German counter blows In the past month. Almost 1000 German troops were killed and 27 tanks knocked out in c futile NaI counter-attack in this sector the communique said.
 Farther north in White Russia, the Soviet 1st Baltic Army pound- ed forward toward the strategic railway junction of Vitebsk, now only IS to 20 miles from the Rus sion spearhead driving down from the Nevel area. One Soviet column forced a river crossing and cap- tured . number of enemy strong points in 8 surprise attack that hurled the Nazis into confused re- 1 treat.
 l,5OO Killed
 In the Zhlobin area, roughly mid- way between Vitebsk and Kiev, the Red Army beat down stiff German counter attacks, killin g1,50O enemy troops and destroying 56 tanks.
 Meanwhile, Pope Plus in his an- nual Christmas message to the world deplored what he called breakdown of all moral law among the warrnig nations and appealed for an early peace based on Thu man dignity and moral reSponsibil- ity."
 Our fGtherly heart is more than