Evening star., 1943-09-27
Fighting in ItoIy
Follows Old Pattern
Bv Mai. Georoe Fieldino Eliot

Inc campaign IN South Italy is be-
ginning to look very much like the cam
paign in Sicily. The American 5th Army
is playing the role which Montgomery S
8th British Army played in Sicily-the
frontal, holding attack on the enemy's
main position. In Sicily this was Ca
tania and the foothills of Mount Etna; in
Italy 1t is Naples and the mountains
guarding the approaches to Mount We
suvius. Meanwhile, the British 9th
Army is making the great wheel around
the flank, as the American 7th Army did
in Sicily. In the mountainous central
region 1t is making slow progress, and
this was also true in Sicily; on the coast
OF the Adriatic it moves ahead more
rapidly, as Gen. Pattons army did from
Marsala to Palermo, and on to San Stef-
ano. BY latest reports, the British are
only 25 miles from the group of airfields
around Foggia. The German air force has
already abandoned these fields, which
does not of course, necessarily mean that
they will not be defended on the ground,
though that may be the case
But the approaches to Foggia are not
good defensive terrain for holding ac-
ton by small forces against superior
forces. Unless more German troops ar
rive from the north, Foggia will soon be
in Allied hands. Its fields may be torn
up, but the country is fiat and it will
rot be long before Allied planes will be
at work from the Foggia bases. When
that Is so, the whole system of German
communications in Central Italy will
come in for concentrated air attack
which can be supplemented from Sar-
dinian bases and presently also from
Corsican bases. This alone suggests
that the Germans may have waited too
long at Naples.
Foggia is, however, of Importance as
land communication center as well as
an air center. Rail lines from Naples,
Salerno, Taranto and Bari converge here
to join the main east coast railway lead
ing to Central and Northern Italy. It
Is center of seven highways, including
one of the two north h-south highways of
the peninsula, that from Rome to Bari
and Brindisi, which passes through the
town. The most important transverse
highway of Southern Italy, from Naples
CLOS miles away joins this longitudinal
road at Foggia.
The pressure which the fall of Foggia
will exert on the German army de-
Tending Naples is precisely the sort OF
pressure which Gen. Patton's capture
OF Palermo began to exert on the Ger
man army defending Catania. It does
not yet cut off their communications
but their commander has to begin to
think about the possibility that his
communications may be cut very soon
And he does not, as at Catania, have the
opportunity Of retiring to a short, easily
defended line for last stand directly
covering his line Of retreat. If the
British were to advance westward or
southwestward from Foggia only half
the distance across the Italian peninsula
say to Campobasso or Benevento, and
arrived there while the Germans were
still fighting in the hills between Sa-
lerno and Naples, the chances of any of
these Germans ever getting back to
Germany would be remote indeed-un-
less additional German troops were to
arrive in South Italy to hold up the
British advance and to protect the re-
tirement of their comrades
We thus see developing a situation
which illustrates perfectly what has
been repeatedly pointed out in these ar
ticles; German attempt to fight for
South italy must inevitably involve either
an increasing drain on German fighting
power. or the destruction of the German
forces committed to the original action
Remember that neither side has COM
mitted It's last reserve. The Germans
have several divisions-perhaps as many
as 10 or 12-which they can send into
South italy If they think the risk is
justified. Gen. Eisenhower has not yet
committed either the 7th American OF
the British 1st Army and Napoleon once
said that things being equal victory
will usually go to the general who can
put up the last reserve"
OF course, the factor of air power
complicates the whole of the German
problem. The mounting Allied air
threat to railways and raids must give
pause to any German staff which is
thinking of sending more German troops
to South Italy. What is happening now
to those German communications is
but small foretaste of what will hap
pen when our planes are operating from
Foggia, from Sardinia and from Corsica
BY what the Germans do, or fail to do
will the judgment of the Allied high
command be formed as to when and
where to commit our reserves of ground
troops to action. Meanwhile, every day
that the Germans continue to fight for
Naples is a day of added danger, as the
great British fanking movement swings
around like a scythe of destiny, urged
on by the furious energy and incom-
parable skill of Gen. Montgomery.
(Copyright, 1943, New York Tribune, Inc)
U. S. Postwar Collaboration