SERIES OF SUCCESSES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 January 1943, Page 3

SERIES OF SUCCESSES

GAINED BY FRENCH TROOPS IN NORTH AFRICA ENEMY GARRISONS CAPTURED DESERT FORCES PUSHING NORTH. MANY ALLIED AIR ATTACKS. .' LONDON, January 12. A fresh success in Central Tunisia is reported in a communique from Allied Head quarters in North Africa. French troops stormed a mountain pass 23 miles-south of Pout du Fahs and captured some Italian prisoners. The pass is not on the main road, but is of considerable strategic importance in the rugged country of this area.

Activity by patrols elsewhere is reported by both sides. Spitfires made a sweep over the forward battle areas and shot down one enemy fighter. Enemy targets near Gabes were attacked as were others at Ghadames, in Tripolitania. Over the sea, Allied planes shot down three Axis transport aircraft. Two Allied planes did not come back.

Fighting French forces have scored a big success deep in the hinterland of Tripolitania, where they have occupied Murzuk, the capital of the Fezzan and the main Axis military post 100 miles north of that town. At each place almost the entire garrison was taken prisoner. Other French troops, pushing on further north, are making considerable progress. They defeated an enemy motorised force and compelled it to withdraw.

SOME UNEASINESS

CAUSED BY DELAYS IN NORTH AFRICA. PROBLEM OF VICHY INFLUENCE NOT SOLVED YET. (Special P.A. Correspondent.) (Received This Day, 10.15 a.m.) LONDON, January 12. Some uneasiness, rather than surprise, is the reaction to the realisation that the conquest of Tunisia has been delayed and will now prove a difficult task. It was hoped that the Axis could rapidly be thrown out of Africa, bringing nearer the time for an attack on the “soft under-belly of the Axis.” This new is likely to be put back. One thing which has emerged from the North African campaign is the realisation that political as well as military difficulties are accompanying the reconquest. The influence exercised by Vichy in French North Africa has caused much dissatisfaction with the “collaborationists,” as they are euphemistically dubbed by the “Economist,” which says they are the first particular problem on which the Allies must agree, for, as the tide of victory turns, opportunists will make desperate efforts to switch their loyalties, and, if the principle is established that they are acceptable to the Alies, trouble will be stored up, including the possibility of estranged relations between the Allies.

NAPLES BOMBED AS WELL AS AFRICAN OBJECTIVES. ACTIVITIES OF MIDDLE EAST AIRCRAFT. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 9.30 a.m.) RUGBY, January 12. A Middle East communique states: “Yesterday there was nothing to report from our land forces except patrol activity There was increased enemy air activity over the battle area, and in combats which developed Allied fighters destroyed at least five enemy planes and damaged many others.

“On Sunday night bombing and ma-chine-gun attacks were carried out on road targets between Tripoli and Misurata. Sousse harbour was also successfully bombed and transport was shot up on the road between Gabes and Sfax.

“Naples was bombed yesterday and an intercepting Messerschmitt 109 was shot down. From the above operations three of our aircraft are missing.”

STILL BEING PRESSED ATTACKS IN KAIRWAN AREA. BRITISH TROOPS IN ACTION. (Received This Day, 11.0 a.m.) LONDON, JanuaryJ2. Fighting has again flared up in South-West Tunisia, when French troops, supported by R.A.F. fighters, attacked Karachwan, 17 miles northwest of Kairwan, and captured a mountain pass and 180 Italians. Fighting is still going on. Other French troops succeeded in surrounding Axis forces in a small valley near Jebel Boudabous, north-west of Kairwan, and captured a neighbouring hill. French troops five miles south of Fon■douck repulsed and caused heavy casualties among German attackers. Flying Fortresses successfully attacked Ghadames '(in western Tripolitania) and directly hit the fort, from which a huge column of smoke and flames shot up. They also attacked a railway bridge 16 miles north-west of Gabes. An Associated Press correspondent in Tunisia cables that British infantry and tanks on Sunday pushed _the Germans from positions and straddled the arterial Goumbellat Road, 16 miles west of Pont du Fah. British and German forces, after a day of brisk fighting, are now facing each other across a narrow valley six miles north of Bouarada. British infantry yesterday, after routing the Germans from a hill and farm near the Goumbellat Road, occupied high ground east of the road and later, supported by tanks, made a thrust against German positions on a high hill beyond the road, but the fight was indecisive.