The Daily Alaska empire. [volume] (Juneau, Alaska) 1926-1964, 1944-05-12
BIG SPRING
PUSH BEGINS
new FRONT
Allied troops Start As
sdulting Gustav Line
in Mighty Drive

|
NAPLES, May IL. Allied troops,
smashing out the first big spring
push against Hitler's European wall.
are assaulting the Gustav Line in
italy along a 25-mile front from
Casino to the sea. Some detectives
have already been taken in the
greatest offensive in the Mediter-
ranean warfare. a
The mighty drive jumped off at
IL o'clock last night under a record
breaking, earth shaking artillery
barrage, front dispatches said, and
the Germans were driven from
some front line positions in fierce
fighting.
Full Allied Stroke
1t was full Allied stroke by Am
erican, British, Dominion, Polish,
French and italian troops. British
and Indian forces Of the Eighth
Army crossed the Rapido and Carl
Rivers early today and are press
ing ON toward the first objective.
the Gustav Line
A front dispatch from Canadian
Press war correspondent Douglas
Amaron declared that Carl is a
small stream four to five miles
south of Casino, running between
the Rapido and the Liri Rivers.
Secretly regrouped, General Mark
Clark's Fifth Army struck westward
along a flank running in from the
Tyrrhenian Sea, and the British
Eighth Army, transferred from the
Adriatic, plunged forward in the
bloody Casino sector rs miles in
land on a curving battlefront. and
are attempting to drive up the Liri
Valley
Casino Action Flares
The Fifth Army men fought into
the rugged mountain mass rising
from the Garigliano Valley south
west of Casino in an effort to clear
these heights. Latest reports indi-
Gated there is no big offensive ac-
ton as yet launched at the Anzio
beachhead below Rome.
Some so miles west Of Casino
hundreds of Allied warplanes blast
ed the Germans in mammoth sky
support of the ground troops. The
Navy supported the attack by turn
ing its big guns on the Nazis. who
are reported fighting desperately,
throwing up curtain of mortar.
artillery and machine gun fire.. and
using flame throwers in at least one
Fifth Army sector.
Artillery Barrage
The laundering Allied artillery
barrage is described as the heaviest
yet laid down in this theater, sur
passing even the great artillery dis
plays which heralded General
Montgomery's offensives in Africa
Gen. Sir Harold Alexander, Med
iterranean Commander in Chief. IL
directing the assault. In a pre-
battle statement, 1t. Gen. Sir Oil
yer Leese, successor to Montgomery
as Eighth Army Commander, said,
This battle differs from previous
attacks by the Eighth Army. Our
task is to assault and break through
in turn series of natural defen-
siye positions strongly held and
long prepared. each Of which the
Germans will cling to until forced
out.
Objective
Our immediate objective is the
Gustav Line. which has been forti-
fled for many months past. and in
cludes modern concrete defense
works in many places. Behind this
lies the Adolph Hitler Line, an
other strong natural defensive posi-
ton, which the German military
engineers prepared during the
months past and strengthened to
the utmost, and which Hitler's
troops will be ordered to hold to the
last man. The defenses we now are
attacking are the strongest the Bri-
fish Army has encountered in the
present war"