Evening star., 1943-09-30
Progress in Italy

1WO eFeuIS occurring IN rdpld sue
cession foreshadow the overcoming
of the stubborn German resistance
in the Naples area. The first of
these developments took place, not
In the Naples region but across the
peninsula where the British Eighth
Army, pushing rapidly up the
Adriatic coastal plain, captured the
town of Foggia. This is an important
Allied gain from several aspects. To
begin with, 1t is major air base with
a series of fields from which, when
repaired, Allied fighter planes can
bomb the Germans around Naples
and disrupt their communications to
the northward. Furthermore, a rail-
way and high road leads across a
pass in the mountainous backbone
OF the Apennines to Naples, thus
making possible a f1anking move
ment against the German line south
of Naples, where they have been
putting up so dogged a stand against
our Fifth Army and British forces.
Yet even in advance of such lateral
pressure, that German line Is
sagging under continuous Allied at
tacks. Yesterday, our troops drove
a wedge through the mountain bar
rier to the edge of the open country
beyond, The way to Naples is still
blocked by the isolated mass OF
Mount Vesuvius, but British war
ships standing offshore are pound
ing the German installations there,
much as they did those around
Mount Etna which blocked the
Allied advance up the east coast Of
Sicily to the Straits of Messina.
There is useful parallel to be drawn
between the Sicilian campaign and
that now being waged in Southern
Italy. The flanking push from
Foggia over the Apennines bears
strategically much the same rela-
ton as did the Allied advance along
the Sicilian north coast which
eventually compelled the Germans to
abandon their Etna defense line
Another similarity between the
two campaigns is that, from the Ger
man viewpoint, both are essentially
delaying operations. In their stand
south Of Naples, they are gaining
precious time in a two-fold sense.
First, they are thereby enabled so
thoroughly to demolish the splendid
Neapolitan dock system and harbor
installations that they will be we'll
nigh useless to the Allies for a
relatively long period The port OF
Naples is the only first class harbor
on the Mediterranean coast of
Southern Italy. Until the Allies have
repaired the damage after they take
Naples, they will be handicapped in
their further advance on Rome and
elsewhere northWard.
Still more important is the fact
that the German stand at Naples
gives the main body of their forces
in the peninsula time to consolidate
their position in the North, stamp
out popular opposition, and prepare
strong defense line along the crest
of the Apennines from Genoa on the
Mediterranean to Ancona on the
Adriatic. That is where the German
high command would logically make
its first general stand against Allied
armies working their way up the
peninsula. This mountain barrier,
traversed by relatively few passes,
effectively screens the broad valley
Of the Pc with its great cities, its
rich resources, and its bitterly anti
German industrial population.
Even before reaching that Ap-
ennine barrier, the Allies may have
some tough preliminary work to
clear the Germans from Central
Italy. Once in Naples, the advance
on Rome should be relatively easy
up a wide coastal plain. But the
Germans may entrench themselves
on the mountain ridge which sepa-
rates the two coasts, and from this
central position could menace Allied
littoral advances by flank attacks on
their communications. If the Ger
man high command wants to send
men and equipment enough to Italy,
it can make the Allied conquest of
the peninsula long and costly
undertaking, The capture of Naples
will be merely one of the early stages.