Evening star., 1943-12-08
Monastery Ridge
Retoken; Three
Villages Fall
MAP on Page ABB
BY the Associated Press

By the Associated Press.
ALLIED HEADQUARTERS, Al
gierS, Dec. 8.-The Allied 5tt
Army has captured the summit
of lofty Mount Canine, routed
the Nazis from three fortified
villages southwest of Mignanc
and recaptured Monastery Ridge
in bitter fighting to win heights
overlooking the road to Casino
and Rome, it was announced
today.
Official reports from 1t. Gen
Mark w. Clark's headquarters saio
the enemy had been showed back
to the fringe of ridges on the north
ern and western edges of Mount
Canine and Mount Maggiore by
the steady, savage thrusts of Ameri-
can and British troops.
The 5th Army's hammer blows
through the deep. powerful German
winter line toward Casino were ac-
companied by fresh gains on the
British 9th Army's Adriatic coastal
sector.
Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgom-
ery's forces crushed repeated Nazi
counterattacks and reported limited
advances in the area of the Moro
River, where both British tanks and
infantry had crossed the stream,
Severe Nazi Casualties.
Evidence Of severe German casu-
altles in defense Of this coastal sec
tor came with discovery that Mar
shal Albert kesselring had thrown
the Goth Armored Grenadier Divi-
sion into line there to relieve the
65th Infantry Division.
The 65th Division was so badly
smashed that one of its battalions
lost all its officers, emerging with
only a sergeant major left to COM
mand.
Continued rain as we'll as fierce
enemy defense slowed the British
advance, and the Germans threw a
heavy artillery bombardment at
Allied-held Lanciano, key highway
junction on the inland road leading
toward Chieti.
Every foot gained in the 5th
Armys newest advance was yielded
only after desperate and costly de-
fense by the Germans When Brit
ish troops in sharp battle ousted the
Nazis from the summit of Monastery
Ridge-Which the Germans had re-
taken in a counterattack the day
hefore-they found it Uttered with
German dead. Monastery Ridge is
one of the foothills leading to the
top of Mount Canine from the
south.
Now Command Valley.
From positions on all the domi-
mating heights of both Mount Cam
ino and Mount Maggiore, Gen
Clark's guns now command the
southern part of the road and valley
between Mignano and Casino, in
which the Liri River flows into the
upper Garigliano
The three villages from which
Gen. Clarks British units knocked
the enemy were Canine, Acquapen-
dole and Cocuruzza, 3 to miles
below Mignano.
Can NBC broadcast from AL
giers said advanced American
units of the 5th Army now were
Ia miles from the Canine Plain,
where tanks can be used in the
drive on ROme}
In a few places Allied forward
units have begun working down the
west side of the newly-won SUBMITS
toward the valley. The Germans
who retreated to the northern slopes
Of Mount Maggiore are only mile
and a half from the Upper Garig-
llano, without hope of establishing
tenable positions short of that river.
Supply Base Raided.
American medium and fighter
bombers yesterday twice attacked
Civitavecchia, IS miles northwest
of Rome and principal German sup
ply base on the italian west coast.
but the days spectacular achieve
ment came when American Spit
fires met a dozen Nazi fighters over
the battle area, downing six and
damaging two more, without any
American losses.
A large force of BIS Mitchells
hit Civitavecchia first, striking a
ship, dropping bombs close to others,
touching off an explosion in an
ammunition dump and blasting rail-
road yards
Later American A-36 divebomb-
ers fired warehouses and showered
bombs around freighter.
A-36s and P-40 Warhawks at
tackled bridges and roads near the
5th Army front.
Pounding east coast supply lines
American Mitchells bombed railway
yards at Pescara. invaders smashed
the town of Viacusa and Raj Kitty
bombers blasted German gunposts
west Of Orsogna.