NAZI RETREAT IN TRIPOLITANIA

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 101, 23 January 1943, Page 5

NAZI RETREAT IN TRIPOLITANIA

Little Resistance Reported LONDON, January 21. Cairo correspondents are saying tonight that unless there is siwne unexpected check the fall of Tripoli is imminent. Homs, 65 miles from Tripoli along the coast road, and Tarhuna, 45 miles from the capital by the inland route, fell yesterday, and our forces were then in close touch with the retreating Afrika Korps. A correspondent says the Eighth Army is meeting with very little resistance.

There were no ground engagements yesterday, and hardly any artillery lire. The enemy increased the speed of his retreat across the rich and fertile Jafara plains, leaving no other obstacles than mines and booby traps. The spearhead of General Montgomery’s army, having passed Tarhuna, has reached part of the famous automobile circuit south-east of Tripoli, behind the natural hilly defences “between the sea and the inland road.

Royal Air Force planes are continuing their efforts against the enemy up to the Tunisian frontier, states a Cairo message.

Today the road to Tunisia, with its stranded and burning vehicles, is very similar to all others from El Alamein to Tripoli, and the 50 miles of roadway between Tripoli and Zuara is reported to be a shambles of wrecked vehicles. By yesterday evening there were few moving vehicles on the road, in contrast to the activity that characterized the roads round Tripoli earlier on when streams of traffic were observed moving northward toward the coastal road in addition to unending convoys moving westward between Tripoli and Zuara.