The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-11-10
The WorOn
.MonyFronts

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rain-swept italian battlefront today
but powerful Russian mechanical
columns rolled unchecked across the
Western Ukraine in a headlong adj
vance that increased the threat of
destruction to 100000 NaN troops
in the Dnieper river bend.
The Germans struck repeatedly at
advancing Anglo-American Fifth
Army troops on the western flank of
the Italian front in a desperate at
tempt to prevent a break in their
winter line" some 30 miles south
Of Rome.
Fighting on battlefelds turned
into quagmires by the ceaseless rains,
the Fifth Army beat back nine sep
arate Nazi counterattacks while
their artillery poured death into the
enemy ranks.
The American wing Of the Allied
line faced its hardest battle in the
mountainous terrain north of Vena-
fro, where the Germans had con-
centrated strong forces to block a
thrust to the Capua-Rome highway
that would rip open the western end
of their defenses.
Gen. Sir Bernard l.. Montgomery's
Eighth Army veterans fought their
way five miles up the center OF the
peninsula to capture the towns Of
Castiglione and Forli, but here, too,
the Germans put up the flercest re-
sistance. One Eighth Army column
encountered As separate demolitions
on a single four-mile stretch Of high
way.
The u. s. 18th air force hurled
its Mediterranean-based Flying For
tresses at northern italian Indus
trial targets for the second time
yesterday, smashing at Genoa and
Turin.
The forts pounded the Ansaldo
Steel Works in Genoa, largest Of its
kind in all Italy, and dropped O.
great weight of explosives on the
Villar Perosa Ball Bearing plant in
Turin. The latter was the only re-
naming Italian source of bearings
for Germany's war machine since
other fortresSeS knocked out the
Turin Fiat Works on Monday.
Mosquitoes Busy
Raj Mosquitoes carried forward
the night offensive against Ger
many from Great Britain, striking
into the western Reich for the sixth
straight time, while intruder planes
ranged over enemy targets in
France and Belgium.
Bitter cold and snow were re-
ported sweeping over the Russian
front as the Red Army pounded
steadily toward the Rumanian and
Polish frontiers in an effort to
cash in" on its summer-long Of
fensive by destroying the almost
encircled German armies in the
Dnieper pocket.
Soviet tanks and motorized In
fantry drove westward along the
main highway from Kiev to within
IS miles Of the last north-south
railway east Of the Polish border,
while other spearheads advanced
northwest and southwest of the old
Ukraine capital The three columns
liberated more than 80 towns in
their advance.
Russians forces In the Crimea
beat of German counter-attacks
against their beachheads on the
eastern tip Of the peninsula, but
there was no confirmation Of re-
ports that the Soviets had taken
Kerch.
On the north-central front, an
other powerful Russian AJp,y fought
through stiff German resistance
wset and southwest Of Newell on the
approaches to Northern Poland,
Latvia and Lithuania.
In the Pacific, American tanks
went into action today against q
force OF possibly 5000 Japanese
landed by barges north of the U. s.
Marine beachhead on Bougainville
Island and front dispatches in
dicated battle rivalling that for
Guadalcanal was In full swing.
AS their corps marked its l66th
anniversary, the Marines were re-
ported locked in combat with the
New Japanese column, which
slipped ashore Saturday night near
Asthma Bay. seven miles north Of
Empress Augusta Bay where the
Marines landed on Nov, 1,