N. AFRICA: French troops penetrated to a depth of two miles in mountainous country of the Fifth Army front on Thursday [Jan 13], says Reuter’s Special Correspondent. They captured three mountains north-east of Acquafondata after beating off two heavy counter-attacks and have now completed the capture of all high ground north-east of Acquafondata.

The German counter-attack designed to retake Cervaro was launched at midnight of Wednesday-Thursday and was on a very strong scale but was repulsed and Allied troops continued their advance. A column of Americans have now moved forward from Cervaro towards the Cassino road and are directly threatening the northern slopes of Monte Trocchino. Toughest fighting is expected when General Mark Clark’s troops contact the German defensive line running from north to south through the town of Cassino — the line is known as “Gustav line”.

German prisoners taken recently have been most boastful about the impregnability of this line. It was announced at the Allied headquarters today [Jan 14] that the Allies have taken over 8,000 German prisoners since they landed in Italy on Sept. 3. This shows an increase of 2,000 over the figure given in the last announcement which was issued on December 13. The total number was then 6,000.

Published in Dawn, January 15th, 2019