XIII Corps Attacks Orsogna
On 23 December, XIII Corps launched a new attack to push back the German line from Orsogna. In the afternoon, the British 5th Infantry Division attacked on the right wing of the Corps front toward the Arielli stream. Their objective was to secure the flank of the New Zealand Division, which was in turn to attack northwest and west from the salient in order to roll up the Orsogna defences from the north.
After the 5th Infantry Division had achieved its objectives, the New Zealand 5th Infantry Brigade attacked at 04:00 on 24 December. Despite intensive artillery support (272 guns on a 3,500 yd (3,200 m) front), the tired and understrength New Zealand battalions struggled to make progress. By the afternoon, it had become clear to the New Zealand commander—Bernard Freyberg—that the stubborn defences of the 26th Panzer Division would not be broached. He is reported to have remarked, "It is not a question of further advance, it is a question of holding on to what we have got". The XIII Corps front was effectively deadlocked and settled into a posture of active defence and patrolling.
Read more about this topic: Moro River Campaign
Famous quotes containing the words corps and/or attacks:
“The Washington press corps thinks that Julie Nixon Eisenhower is the only member of the Nixon Administration who has any credibility—and, as one journalist put it, this is not to say that anyone believes what she is saying but simply that people believe she believes what she is saying ... it is almost as if she is the only woman in America over the age of twenty who still thinks her father is exactly what she thought he was when she was six.”
—Nora Ephron (b. 1941)
“The gray glaze of the past attacks all know-how....”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)