BATTLE FOR TUNISIA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 January 1943, Page 3

BATTLE FOR TUNISIA

GERMAN PREPARATIONS REINFORCEMENTS RUSHED IN BY AIR. ANTICIPATION OF RESOLUTE STAND. (Bj; Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) '(Received This Day, 11.50 a.m.) LONDON, January 8. “The Germans are massing for the coming battle for Tunisia,” says the “Daily Express” Algiers correspondent. “Every available transport plane and glider is beingpressed into service by the Axis to rush reinforcements from Italy to Tunisia. “The Germans are not going to fight a delaying action and then clear out of North Africa.” the correspondent adds. “They are going to defend Tunisia as a major front and right now they are reinforcing with every modern weapon in their armoury. The Allied infantry—Tommies, Doughboys and Poilus —are within 40 miles of their two great goals, Tunis and Bizerta. Both sides are bogged down in deep, clinging, slimy impassable mud. For the air forces it must be the same. The forward landing grounds are simply open paddocks, lying on the floors of valleys which are swamped overnight by rains. But' the Allies definitely lead in the sky struggle.” A British United Press correspondent reports that the French Camel Corps, composed of fierce desert warriors, after a violent battle yesterday, captured Tanout Mailer, 14 miles from Tairet, in South Tunisia, and wiped out 250 of 400 Italians.

FACTS WANTED NEWSPAPER CRITICISM IN SOUTH AFRICA. TRICKLE OF INFORMATION. (Received This Day, 11.40 a.m.) LONDON, January 8. The South Africa “Mail,” in a leader, says: “We are unable to understand why the British public should not be fully acquainted with the position of the Axis and Allied forces in Tunisia. A recent general impression was that the enemy held only the tip of Tunisia and the towns and airfields of Tunis and Bizerta, but correspondents’ statements prove that Axis forces occupy a substantial slice of Tunisia, running from north to south and in some places 70 miles inland. Nothing more has been heard of the American forces advancing on Gabes, in an attempt to cut the coast road linking the German armies in Tunisia and Tripolitania. We are still bombing Gabes. It can be deduced that the Axis occupies the entire coast between Bizerta and Tripoli, and that they are using the vital coast road for communication between the armies of Nehring and Rommel. This explains a suggestion that Rommel is receiving equipment necessary for the replacement of that lost at El Alamein. It is necessary to utter a warning against the possible results of allowing only the most meagre trickle of information to flow from this battlefront. The British and American Governments will have only themselves to blame if expectations are not realised and a storm bursts around their heads.”