Evening star., 1944-05-28
5th Army Forces
w Miles From
Escape Route
MAP on Page A-4.)
By the Associated Press.

BY une AsSoclhtSo fTeSs.
ALLIED HEADQUARTERS,
Naples, May 27.-American ar
mored forces fought their way
into the town of Artena, only
2Ha miles from Valmontone,
guarding the strategic via CAST
lima, and tonight began pouring
q heavy shellfire into this main
escape route for eight German
divisions below Rome.
While American tanks and field
guns kept the enemy retreat line
under fire, other American 5th
Army forces in their closets drive
toward Rome threatened the town
of velletri, Is airline miles from the
outskirts of the capital. Velletri
already was shrouded in smoke from
blazing fires, and it was reported
that the town had been deserted
by civilians.
The Germans, apparently alarmed
over the plight of their large forces
to the southeast, threw reserves into
the fight to keep the Americans
from blocking the all-important Via
Casilina Highway No. 6-Associated
Press Correspondent Daniel De
Luce wrote from the front tonight.
In the town of Artena, American
doughboys were waging a house-to-
house battle with the Germans, Mr..
De Luce reported. Artena, itself
an important road junction behind
the retreating Na1 10th Army, was
reached after spectacular drive
OF nine miles in one day.
Nazi Counterattack.
MIR. De Luce said the Germans
had attempted a sharp counter
attack on the secondary highway
between Velletri and Artena, but
that American artillery was cover
ing the Via Casilina and shells were
falling on German positions Is
miles from Rome.
The Allied armies advanced stead
lily along the entire 80-mile active
front today.
American 5th Army forces, forg-
ing a ring around the Pontine
Marshes, stormed through the
mountain town OF Seize, which has
population OF 10000 and is the
largest town yet taken in the Al
lied offensive, developing a second
threat TO the main German forces,
Sezze is 13 miles northwest of Ter
racina.
Capture Of the town brought the
Americans squarely up against a
new defense line, which two Ger
man divisions have tried to estab-
lsh in the Lepini Hills northeast
Of the marshes to protect the flank
Of the German troops In the Liri
Valley and their principal route of
retreat along the Via Casilina to-
ward Rome.
Main Forces 10 Miles Apart.
The main bodies of the two 5th
Army forces, whose patrols joined
earlier in the week, now were less
than 10 miles apart.
At the center of the front near
the junction of the 5th and 9th
Army sectors, the Nazis began with
drawing their battered forces as
best they could, meanwhile throw
ing powerful reinforcements into
action to bolster the principal points
protecting the escape route.
The cutting of the Via Casilina
would seriously impair the German
efforts to make an orderly with
drawal OF the large forces still fight
ing In the Liri Valley.
Marshal Albert Kesselring prob
ably would be able to extricate a
substantial part of those forces
along other escape routes to the
north, but these relatively small
roads would be easily clogged and
the Germans probably would be
compelled to leave behind the bulk
of their guns and other heavy
equipment.
Peril TO Divisions.
OF the II enemy divisions REIN
forced with regiments or smaller
units from other divisions which
the Germans have committed to
action south of Rome, eight are in
the line where their escape would
be complicated by the cutting OF
the Via Casilina.
These are the 715th infantry and
10Th Panzer Grenadiers, holding the
line from the Corr area southeast
through the Lepini Hills; the 26th
1See ITALY, Page A-5)