Horizon:Rome

For nine bloody weeks the Allies have inched slowly up Italy's shank, their progress slowed by mined roads, shattered bridges, fiercely resisting Germans in mountain emplacements. Last week the U.S. and British forces stepped up their attack, broke through the Germans' strongest barrier below Rome.

That barrier consisted of a series of transverse ranges, stretching north eastward from Mount Massico on the Tyrrhenian coast, through Venafro and Isernia to Vasto on the Adriatic. No single engagement cracked this German line. The job was done in coordinated thrusts--the first by Lieut. General Mark Clark's Fifth Army at Mount Massico, then one by General Sir Bernard Montgomery's Eighth Army at Isernia, and another by General Clark's men at Venafro. These break-throughs were followed by two smashes at the flanks. Vasto fell to the Eighth; the Fifth probed into the Aurunci Mountains.

Before the Allies now lay parallel valleys. Entrenched on the mountains commanding these valleys were the Germans, still in excellent positions to delay the Allied advance. Through the westernmost valley, before General Clark's Fifth Army, wound the Via Appia, most famous of all roads to Rome. Before the Eighth can think of Rome, it must hack up the Adriatic coast to Pescara.

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