The Waterbury Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1917-1946, 1943-09-24
The War On
Many Fronts
BY United Press

Allied armed forces stepping up
the battle Of Italy, struck ahead in
q general offensive on the Fifth
Army front below Naples, advanced
UP TO 80 miles in the Eighth Army
sector, destroyed seven German air
transports trying to evacuate troops
from Corsica, and sank munitions
ship in an Albanian harbor.
Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhowers
headquarters, announcing the in
tensif1cation and expansion of land,
sea and air combat in the italian
theater, said Americans of the Fifth
Army were exerting heavier pres
sure on the German defenses
athwart the approaches to Naples
after launhcnig an offensive all
along the line at dawn YESTERDAYS.
The Allies also were pounding
harder at the Germans on the air
front Of Western Europe. The Royal
Air Force carried one Of the most
widespread aerial assaults of the
war through its second night with
a blockbuster attack ono Mann
heim-Ludwigshafen, German in
land port and arms center, at a
cost Of 80 bornbers.
On the Russian front, where the
Nazis admitted they were facing
their gravest threat Of the war In
the east, the Red Army closed
against a 700-mile stretch of the
Dnieper and prepared to storm its
key bastions of Snolensk, Kiev,
Dniepropetrovsk and Zaporozhe.
Moscow reported the Germans
were so hard pressed that they were
abandoning their arms as they fell
back toward Kiev, the capital Of the
Ukraine, which the Russians had
within gunshot.
Frontal Assault
Lashing out In frontal assault
aimed at Naples, Lieut. Gen. Mark
w. Clark's Fifth Army gained seven
miles and captured Oliveto Citra.
The Eighth Army moving up to the
east seized the junction Of Altamura
in long marches which Strengthened
out the Allied line from the heights
above Salerno across the peninsula
to the Bari area.
German efforts to evacuate Cor
slca ahead of the advancing French
regulars and guerrillas flanked by
American Rangers was reported In
full swing. Allied fighter planes tore
into three formations OF German
aerial transports headed out of Cor
sica. They shot down all three Of
the first formation. two OF six in
the second. and two Of FIVE in the
third.
Aerial scouts saw a steady pro-
cession Of boats evacuating Ger
man troops from Bastia In north
eastern Corsica and ferrying them
across to Leghorn on the italian
coast.
The German DNB news agency
claimed that U-boat pack had
sunk IL destroyers and nine cargo
ships In attacks on westbound
convoy In the North Atlantic. While
the report could be discounted for
its propaganda aspects, 1t bore pos
sible significance in relation to
Prime Minister Winston Churchill's
statement Tuesday that Nazi sub
marines were going back into action
after four months in which not
single Allied ship was sunk in the
North Atlantic.
New Britain Threatened
In the Pacific the fall of the jap
anese base at Finschafen and COM
pletion of Gen. Douglas MacAr-
thurs swift drive for New Guinea
bases threatening New Britain ap-
peared near today.
Australian artillery blasted Fin
schafen from two miles away, re-
ducing the stronghold's defenses re-
naming after a naval Smelling and
aerial bombardment on Wednesday
in support of al Allied landing six
miles up the coast.
The heavy toll taken by the two
week assaults that had engulfed
enemy bases at Salamaua and Lac