Word: volturno
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Dates: during 1943-1943
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...Sicily two CWS mortar platoons maintained a smoke screen for 14 hours. Another unit switched to high explosive when attacked by Italian tanks, disabled three before the others retreated. Last month, the 4.2 showed its usefulness at the crossing of the Volturno. Firing smoke shells, one unit screened infantrymen as they slid down the bank, waded and swam to the German side of the river. Another outfit smoked up the area where Engineers were building a bridge under fire, kept them well screened until the job was done...
Lanky Lieut. General Mark Clark of the British-American Fifth Army rode his familiar jeep up to the front again. The Italian autumn rains had eased a bit. The spongy volcanic soil of the Volturno meadows firmed rapidly; it was possible now to drive off the roads. From a forward post the General peered across a calm, river-and ditch-ribbed valley to the German positions...
Frontal Assault. One hour after midnight the Battle of the Volturno began. From the river's south bank, on both sides of Capua, the Fifth's artillery laid down the heaviest barrage of the Italian campaign. In thinner volume the German guns spoke back. A bright moon silvered the darkness. Under it, shellfire flashed red, tracers brushed glowing orbits, mortars chopped the river into a watery hell...
...bloodiest fighting surged through Capua itself. Just before the Allied zero hour, the Germans thrust a column across the Volturno into the old town. Momentarily the Fifth staggered. Then Allied troops counterattacked. The Germans quickly turned, splashed back across the river. Northeast of Capua, General Clark's Yanks seized a clump of scrubby brown hills dominating the surrounding valley...
...Appian Way. Powerful Allied blows hit the German flanks. A British amphibian force struck north of the Volturno's mouth, from the Tyrrhenian Sea. German artillery lay in wait. But that did not stop the Tommies. From American-type, bow-opening craft they landed, dug in. Offshore, the British destroyers Laforey and Lookout and The Netherlands gunboat Flores shelled the German defenses. The action was fierce, costly. But the bridgehead...