The Waterbury Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1917-1946, 1944-01-25
Spearheads Race To
Cut Appian Way
Continued from Page H.

miles inland from the RIVER mouth,
was threatened)
United States and British veter-
ans spearheading the fanout from
the Nettuno foothold were driving
rapidly against the network of
communications stitching south
eastward from Rome. The Appian
Way, roughly paralleled by the
coastal railroad, was the first objec-
tive. Beyond it lay the Via Casilina
second of the trunk highways link
ing the German defenders of Rome
and the Garigliano front.
Although the Allied beachhead
still had not been delineated spe-
officially, it was believed to extend
far north of captured Nettuno
and neighboring Anzio, and GER
tainly miles below those points.
Bouncing back from the impact
of the intense German counter
offensive on the southern front, the
American. British and French
| forces mounted their own attacks
which wiped out most of the limited
Nazi gains.
Enemy Feint
Both the number and the weight
Of the German blows had fallen off
greatly up to noon Monday, amidst
indications that the enemy assault
might have been designed as a cov-
ering action for a withdrawal to
| meet the fast breaking threat to the
north.
The costliness of the now nullified
effort by the Germans was indi-
Gated by estimates that the Gath
Na1 Infantry division lost so per
cent of its combat strength. An
Allied veteran of the first World
War said that in siX-mile stretch
between Minturno and Castelforte
he saw far more dead Germans than
he saw in the battle of the Somme.
At the center OF the Fifth Army's
southern front three miles south of
Casino, American patrols again
forced the Rapido under a constant
hail Of German fire. 1t was there
that they had been thrown back
across the river from the beachhead
they seized Saturday night.
Bridgehead Expanded
Along the lower Garigliano Brit
ish troops expanded their bridge
head to limited extent and made
short advances III the vicinity of the
Damiano mountains after the Ger
man pressure died down.
Despite the arrival OF German re-
Inducements on the Rome front,
the invaders have not yet encoun-
tered formidable" opposition, an
Allied headquarters communique re-
ported.
dispatches from American cor
respondents who accompanied the
invaders reported, however, that the
Germans had launched counter-at-
tacks with reinforcements rushed
down from Rome in the vicinity of
an important communications CEN
ter on highway" below Rome.
(The Germans attacked at several
points along a canal, dispatches
said, and gained some temporary
successes In see-saw battle involv-
ing tanks, artillery and infantry.
Two bridges were said to have
changed hands several times. The
counter-attacks appeared more in
the nature of the 'feelers" to as
certain Allied strength than a full
fiedged counter-offen
Counter Attack
German counter attacks on the
southern front slackened coincident-
ally with the departure of the "bat-
tie groups" for the north, spokes-
man announced, and American ptA-
rolls thrust back across the Rapido
river below Casino, returning to
the bridgehead which they had been
forced to abandon Saturday night
after running out Of ammunition.
Advances also were made at two
other points against determined
enemy resistance the communique
said.
Only patrol activity was reported
from the Eighth Army front.
Allied Headquarters confirmed be-
latedly that the invasion forces to
the north had captured AnZio, SO
miles south Of Rome and one Of the
main ports for the capital. The in
land push reached the 12-mile mark
at noon Monday, taking the main
beachhead ports of Anzio and Net
tuno, one and three quarters miles
to the east, entirely out of German
Smelling range except for the Nazi
170-milimeter rifle, which can shoot
about 10 miles.
The coastal side of the beachhead
was revealed officially to run several
miles north and south Of Anzio.
Can Italian border dispatch to
the Stockholm Newspaper Svenska
Dagbladet said the Allied forces had
captured Littoria, IA miles east Of
Nettuno and about four miles from
the Appian Way, and cut the Rome
Tarracina railway
(Radio Bari, voice of the Badoglio
government, asserted that italian
patriots had cut, at least temporar-