CONTINUED ALLIED ADVANCE IN NORTH AFRICA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 November 1942, Page 3

CONTINUED ALLIED ADVANCE IN NORTH AFRICA

Deep Penetration Into Tunisia Reported EIGHTH ARMY PRESSING ON IN LIBYA ALONG COASTAL AND INLAND ROUTES So LONDON, November 17. It has just been reported by Allied Headquarters in North Africa that British units have penetrated into Tunisia, clearing the way for the advance of General Anderson’s First Army. Unofficial messages report encounters with German reconnaissance units which retreated on being engaged. The latest official communique, however, says only that there is nothing new to report. News of German origin speaks of Allied troops being on the march eastward from the Algerian port of Bona, which is 100 miles west from the Tunisian naval base of Bizerta. The Germans speak also of Allied activity in Southern Tunisia. ’ General Eisenhower said that the fighting near Bizerta, which was reported yesterday by Radio Morocco, was between French and Axis troops. , As soon as the French knew the Germans were coming to Tunisia, they scuttled ships in the harbours and took away all movable defences such as anti-aircraft guns, and also all transport and petrol, says ‘ ‘ The Times ’ ’ correspondent at the Allied Headquarters. The opinion was expressed that the main object of the enemy’s forces in Tunisia was to hold the ports to enable Rommel’s forces to get out of Africa. The British Eighth Army is pressing forward on Libya on two lines of advance—the coastal route and that which strikes directly overland to Benghazi from Tmimi. On the coastal route Derna, the most northerly port in Libya, has been occupied and in its inland advance the Eighth Army has reached Mekili, which is about one-third of the way from Tmimi to Benghazi. Fighter and bomber aircraft continue to hammer Rommel’s retreating forces by day and night, but bad weather yesterday hampered air operations and gave the enemy a somewhat easier