Current Events September 28, 1943;

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY SEPTEMBER 28, 1943:

British Troops in a 22 mile advance captured Foggia, the biggest air base and transport center in Southeast Italy, and th« battle of Naples raged toward an imminent crisis today.
Fighting hand to hand and yard.to yard, Lieut. Gen. Mark W. Clark's Fifth army chopped one to two miles through the German hedge hog defenses north of Salerno. Assault - forces reached the hills 'dominating the town of Nocera, five miles from Salerno on the direct road to Naples and 20 miles below the big port itself,

A powerful RAF bombing fleet blasted the German industrial center of Hannover last night for the second time in less than a week, and preliminary reports indicated that more than 60 per cent of the city now lies

in ruins from the cumulative effect of the British aerial attacks

Battered German troops, abandoning their  last toe-hold on the east bank, fled for their lives into the Dnieper river today under a rain of Soviet shells and bombs that killed them by the thousands.
Red air force planes pursued the German survivors all the way to the west bank, where they loosed a thunderous bombardment presaging a series of Soviet landings in force designed to breach the Nazi.winter -line and~sweep'the enemy back to Poland.

Refugees reaching here from Rome said today that the Germans shelled the center of the Eternal City after agreeing to occupy only the outskirts, and then moved into the whole city after fighting with Italians, who suffered considerable casualties.

 

        San Mateo Times
                SAN .MATEO, CALIFORNIA, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28 1943

BRITISH ARMY TAKES FOGGIA
Nazis Flee Dnieper;
Hannover Wiped Out
Fall of Naples
Thought Near
As Clark Gains
ALLIED HEADQUARTERS,
North Africa, Sept. 28.—(UP)—British Troops in a 22 mile ad vance captured Foggia, the biggest air base and transport center in Southeast Italy, and th« battle of Naples raged toward an imminent crisis today.
Fighting hand to hand and yard.to yard, Lieut. Gen. Mark W. Clark's Fifth army chopped one to two miles through the German hedge hog defenses north of Salerno. Assault - forces reached the hills 'dominating the town of Nocera, five miles from Salerno on the direct road to Naples and 20 miles below the big port itself,
                                                             Panzer Loss-Heavy
A French communique revealed that the Germans had been forced out of Aleria, one of the few ports on the east coast of Corsica, by French forces who were expected to sweep the last resistance from the island within a few days.
Noeera became a no-man's land as the Nazis found it too hot to hold. But they still overlooked the
town, making it difficult for the allies to move in. The ferocity of the Salerno fighting was confirmed by prisoners of the 16th panzer division who said 55 per cent of their effectives were killed, wounded, or
prisoners of the Americans..

60 Per Cent of
City in Ruins
After Blitz
LONDON, Sept. 28.—(UP)—
A powerful RAF bombing fleet blasted the German industrial center of Hannover last night for the second time in less than a week, and preliminary reports indicated that more than 60 per cent of the city now lies
in ruins from the cumulative effect of the British aerial attacks.
Returning to the attack in what an air ministry communique describes in "very great strength" after a four-night lull apparently enforced by bad weather, the RAF night raiders dropped thousands of explosives and fire bombs on the battered city, possibly equaling the 2000 tons blockbuster assault on the same target on September 22.
                                                                   City Knocked Out 
The air ministry reported the bombers_ had to battle German night fighters all the way from the coast to Hannover and back, with the enemy pilots marking the flight route with flares on both
sides and attacking them continuously over the city. It was the forty-eighth raid of the war on Hannover and observers believed the city had been added to the growing list of Nazi industrial centers in which less than
two-fifths of the target areas still are functioning.

Thousands Die
In Vain Effort
To Cross River
MOSCOW, Sept. 28.—(U.P)—
Battered German troops, abandoning their  last toe-hold on the east bank, fled for their lives into the Dnieper river today under a rain of Soviet shells and bombs that killed them by the thousands.
Red air force planes pursued the German survivors all the way to the west bank, where they loosed a thunderous bombardment presaging a series of Soviet landings in force designed to breach the Nazi.winter -line and~sweep'the enemy back to Poland.
                                                                   Bodies Fill River
A large proportion of the fleeing Germans fell on the river or died in its turbulent waters. Front dispatches
said - swarms of bodies filled the Dnieper.
(A Russian communique said tonight that Red army troops' advancing nine to 12 miles in the Kremenchug sector of the middle Dnieper captured more than 120 inhabited localities today. (Several large towns on the east bank of the Dnieper were occupied by the Soviet forces.closing against the river opposite "Kiev, the communique said.

LAST DEFENSE
ATTACKED AT
FINSCHHAFEN
ALLIED HEADQUARTERS,
Southwest Pacific. Sept .28.—(AP).
—Australian ground troops and dive bombers hammered at the last Japanese defenses ringing the New Guinea seaport of Finschhafen over the week-end, while supporting American heavy bombers attacked the enemy's rear bases hundreds of miles to the northwest.
                                                               Aussies Advance
A communique from Gen. Douglas MacArthur's headquarters disclosed today that Australian infantrymen
closing in on Finschhafen from the north increased iheir pressure on the network of Japanese pillboxes south of the Bumi river, less than a mile from the port, under cover of a heavy dive bombing attack.
There was no word of the two other converging allied columns moving in on Finschhafen from the south and west, but the communique revealed that a fourth body of air-borne Australian troops that captured Kaiapit, 70 miles inland, little more than a week ago had advanced another eight miles up the Markham valley in a wide sweep that threatened to cut off the entire Huon peninsula.
                                                        Bases Bombed
At the same time, U. S. Liberators' dropped 61 tons of explosives and fire bombs on the Japanese bases at Hansa bay, more than 200 miles above Finschhafen, and Wewak, another 100 miles to the northwest.
Three of 20 intercepting enemy planes were shot down ------

Nazi Shelling
Of Rome Told
BRINDISI, Italy, Sept. 28.—(UP)
—Refugees reaching here from Rome said today that the Germans shelled the center of the Eternal City after agreeing to occupy only the outskirts, and then moved into the whole city after fighting with Italians, who suffered considerable casualties.
The refugees, some of whom held official positions, left Rome immediately after the German occupation
and walked most of the way.