Evening star., 1944-01-28
50 Enemy Aircraft
Shot Down in AerioI
Fights in "a Hours
(See Map Page A-5.)
: the Associated Press.

ALLIED HEADQUARTERS, Al
giers, Jan. 28.-The German 10th
Army, backed by planes, struck
with fury at the Allies Nettuno
beachhead but was repulsed by
British forces in a battle near
Carroceto. on the Via Apziate 10
miles north OF Anzio and 81 miles
south of Rome, Allied headquar-
ters announced today.
At the same time the Germans
suffered their greatest air defeat of
the Italian campaign, losing at least
so planes in "a hours in sky battles
over the beachhead and over South
ern France where Flying Fortresses
and Liberators struck at three air
fields near Marseille and Montpelier
and crippled the bases from which
Germans raid Allied shipping of the
Italian coast.
Heavy German armored trains,
backed up almost to Rome, shelled
Allied troops in the fan-shaped
area and correspondents reports said
60-ton Tiger tanks were assembling
along the fringes of the beachhead
as the enemy recovered from his sur
prise and mustered resources for a
fierce battle for Rome.
Bridgehead Enlarged.
But todays communique from ad-
vanced headquarters said 1t. Gen.
Mark w. Clark's 5th Army had en-
larged its bridgehead and taken
many German prisoners.
Associated Press Correspondent
Don Whitehead, in q delayed dis
patch, said the British and Amer
leans had established by the end of
the fourth day a wedge 50 strong
that Rome now was menaced, and
that optimism was running high
among the troops. with men, guns,
armor and supplies pouring into a
broad area.
The 5th Army has extended its
grip up the coast to point II miles
north of Anzio, another report said.
and Americans edged forward 2
miles in another sector yesterday.
Gen. Sir Harold Alexander's Ital-
ian headquarters reported the beach
head now Is at least 5 miles deep at
all points, generally miles deep
and much deeper at some points.
Nazis Rush Troops.
While Allied tank destroyers and
columns of infantry flowed inland In
q steady stream, special German
troops had been rushed by truck,
into the nat, almost tfee1ess coifn-
try and posted In farmhouses with
machine guns in a desperate effort
to bar the path to their vital COM
munications.
Elements of two German divisions
the Hermann Goering Armored Di-
vision and the 29th Armored Grena-
diers, now have been identified In
assaults on the bridgehead.
Heavy losses were exacted yester-
day by the British, who met the
10th Grenadiers and took more than
100 prisoners.
The desperate sky tangles in
which burning German planes fell
at the outskirts of Rome also
showed that the Germans were
making a desperate bid to seal of
the Allied threat to the Eternal City.
American Forces Advance.
Meanwhile, captured German
prisoners said Hitler had given
orders to the 10th Army to hold fast
at all costs to the Gustav Line on
the old front to the south.
The bitterest opposition offered
to American and French troops at
tacking north and south of Casino
during the last "a hours plainly told
that the orders were being carried
out.
The Americans on that front,
after plunging across the Rapido
above Casino in q = fianking stab
at the gateway to the Liri Valley,
scaled one mountain height and
made progress against others.
Although the Americans were
pouring across the Rapido in in
creasing numbers, the Germans in
troduced a new and dangerous
obstacle to their progress by sowing
mines in the bottoms of all irriga-
ton bitches in the area.
The French, farther to the north,
were driven of two hard-won ridges
on Mount Belvedere by desperate
German counterattack. But the
French beat of second thrust and
balanced their loss somewhat by
making small gains to the south
west of Belvedere.
Along the Garigliano, south of
Casino, the British also gained, al
though the fury of battle slackened
there somewhat.
Coastal Positions Shelled.
Allied naval forces supported this
sector by Smelling German coastal
positions near Formia regularly for
the last two days and nights.
Only patrol activity marked the
Sth Army sector along the Adriatic
with the Canadians again making
a slight advance. A full Canadian
(See ITALY. Page A-5)