FALL OF TRIPOLI

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 January 1943, Page 3

FALL OF TRIPOLI

REGARDED AS IMMINENT Unless There Is Some Unexpected Check ROMMEL APPARENTLY ATTEMPTING TO REACH TUNISIA MORE ENEMY SHIPS SUNK IN MEDITERRANEAN LONDON, January 21. With the Eighth Army steadily closing in on Tripoli, Cairo correspondents say that unless there is some unexpected check the fall of the city is imminent. The R.A.F. is keeping up harassing attacks on enemy communications around and beyond Tripoli. Naval torpedo aircraft have hit more enemy ships in the Mediterranean. . Axis troops have made another small advance m Central Tunisia. A 8.8. C. correspondent says the Eighth Army has met with very little resistance and there is a general feeling of optimism in Cairo today. If Rommel has decided not to make a stand in Tripolitania he may choose the Mareth Line 65 miles inside Tunisia as a suitable place to join up with the German forces already in Tunisia. Reuter’s correspondent says the Germans are now strengthening this line and conveying supplies to it up the coast from Tripoli. The Mareth Line, built by the French, is a system of fortifications in depth, consisting of three lines of concrete emplacements and pillboxes. It is stated that if the Germans use this line they may have at their disposal 100,000 experienced troops, who would be in a position to put up a long and desperate fight. The capture of Tripoli will give General Montgomery the use of a major port and airfield, but both have been badly knocked about by the R.A.F. Tripoli was raided again on Tuesday night and was twice raided in daylight yesterday. The R.A.F. struck at all types of targets] within a radius of 30 or 40 miles round the city, turning the roads along which the enemy is retreating into blazing death-traps, with wrecked and burntiout vehicles marking the track of the retreating Germans. In all these and other operations only three British aircraft were lost. FIGHTING IN TUNISIA On land in Tunisia fighting is still confined to minor engagements. An enemy force operating on both sides of a river south-west of Pont du Fahs made a slight advance. A correspondent at Allied Headquarters states that reinforcements are being rushed up to meet the Axis threat. The remainder of the front is quiet. ENEMY SHIPPING LOSSES Aircraft are hammering the enemy’s rear communications arid other targets, including a tanker which was sent to the bottom between Tunisia and Sicily. Four enemy bombers have been destroyed in the last two nights. Naval torpedo aircraft have sunk two Axis supply ships oft the Tunisian coast, crippled a third ship in the same area and sank a further Axis ship in the Aegean Sea.