AXIS FIRES IN TRIPOLI

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 100, 22 January 1943, Page 5

AXIS FIRES IN TRIPOLI

Death-Trap Retreat R.A.F. HOLOCAUST ON WEST ROAD Nearby Towns Occupied (By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.) LONDON, January 21. “Yesterday our forces occupied Homs and Tarhuna, and during the day were in close contact with the enemy retreating to the west,” states today’s Cairo communique. German forces are streaming westward from Tripoli along the coastal road leading to Zuara and the Tunisian border. Huge fires are raging in Tripoli itself, with intermittent explosions. Capture of the city would give us a major port and base only 200 miles from the eastern Tunisian ports, and 300 miles from Sicily, covering the Axis supply lines.

In a non-stop air offensive over an area which one of the pilot’s called a "strafer’s paradise” our planes have been playing havoc with one solid line of enemyvehicles west of Tripoli. Air forces smashed convoys dr Tuesday evening, and by midnight the coastal road was jammed and littered with wrecks.

The enemy had mounted anti-aircraft guns along the roadside, but their fire could not save the convoys. It was a death-trap retreat. Waves of planes attacked from all sides, and at the end there were very few vehicles moving, Or even capable of moving. Today's communique says that aircraft continued to attack the enemy troops and transport at numerous points in the Tripoli area, and fighterbombers maintained steady pressure. Large-scale bombing operations were carried out by day and night. One ship was sunk and two were badly damaged off Tunisia, and one was sunk in tlie Aegean Sea. Three aircraft are missing. “Penetrated Suburbs.” An Avis radio report, quoted by Reuters yesterday, stated that advance units of the Eighth Army, in a lightning advance,’ penetrated the suburbs of Tripoli, which was in flames. Morocco radio said that Rommel had already begun to embark troops from Tripoli. . According to the Paris radio, British paratroops landed behind Rommel's Afrika Korps to harass his communications.

With the Eighth Army nearing Tripoli and apparently no check on General Montgomery's swift pursuit of Field Marshal Rommel's scurrying forces, war correspondents and observers tire coming to the conclusion that the Afrika Korps will evacuate. Tripoli to augment the Axis forces in Tunisia for an all-out stand to retain the toe-hold in Africa.

Reuter’s Cairo correspondent points out that the Eighth Army is rolling up the map so rapidly that Rommel is running short of his most precious weapon, namely, time. The weight of men and material which General Montgomery is throwing in threatens to disrupt the Axis rearguards before Rommel is aide to organize his next move, whether it is resistance or escape.

In spite of reports that Axis troops are embarking from Tripoli, Morocco radio tonight declared that a part of Rommel's forces was already seen well westward of Tripoli and moving rapidly to Tunisia. A correspondent says that this indicates that Rommel may be taking the only alternative to a complete evacuation by sea, namely, to force his way through by land to Tunisia. Either course Rommel takes would be studded with difficulties. He is confined to the four main tracks radiating from Tripoli, and *he R.A.F., leap-frogging to forward aerodromes as they are relinquished, is hammering the fleeing columns and blasting

Tripoli’s* harbour and the aerodrome at Castel Benito. Broken Ground.

The Eighth Army’s advanced units throughout Tuesday maintained contact with Rommel’s rearguards, though the ground at present is broken and hilly. Our left flank was already penetrating the Jebel region and nearing the escarpment from which the plains drop down to Tripoli, inviting fast progress. General Montgomery’s army is now operating 1500 miles from its main base, cays the Cairo correspondent of “Ibe Times.” Some of its supplies were sent by sea to Benghazi. There is only a single track railway a short part of the way from the main base, and the most urgent items are transported by air, but road transport is the backbone of the Eighta Army’s supply. On the other hand, the enemy during the long retreat is continually falling back on his own supply' lines. The fact

that with such an advantage the Axis forces have been unable to make a stand anywhere is proof of tho Eighth Army’s fighting superiority and the immense damage done to the German war machine in the Battle of El Alamein.

One correspondent says that Rommel mny try to make a stand on the Mareth Line, in southern Tunisia, which was originally built by the French.

NATURAL OBSTACLES

LONDON. January 20. A range of hills runs right across our path from Tarhuna (40 miles south-east of Tripoli) almost up to the coast. There is a narrow- strip of fertile country through which the coastal road passes, and through this strip shortly beyond Homs Rommel is known to have prepared some defences and an anti-tank ditch. This is probably- the chief obstacle between Tripoli and the Eighth Army’s present position.

The Eighth Army encountered little opposition yesterday, though the country is becoming more difficult as the top of the Jebel is approached. Rommel appears to be speeding up his withdrawal, and there were no tank clashes yesterday. The number of mines the enemy is leaving is also reported to be smaller than in the past.