EYES ON TUNISIA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 January 1943, Page 3

EYES ON TUNISIA

EXPECTATION IN .BRITAIN WEIGHT OF EIGHTH ARMY WILL SOON BE FELT. MAP EXTENSION IN CAIRO. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, January 24. All eyes are now turned on Tunisia, where it is hoped that the weight of the Eighth Army will soon be felt. A correspondent says: “There is a big new map on the wall of the military conference room in Cairo now, and the change is significant. The old map finished just west of Tripoli. The new one starts west of Tripoli, and runs up to the very tip of Tunisia. This is a sign of things to come.” Field-Marshal Rommel's forces, still battered by the Allied planes, are hurrying northward along the east coast of Tunisia in order to link up with the other Axis forces. An officer of the Eighth Army last night told Reuter's correspondent that German infantry had passed through Gabes, 100 miles inside Tunisia, and also it was extremely likely that some of General Montgomery’s reconnaissance cars had already crossed the frontier into Tunisia. BLACKEST DAY IN ITALIAN HISTORY. TALK OF COUNTER-OFFENSIVE FROM TUNISIA. (Received This Day, 10.15 a.m.) LONDON, January 25. According to reports from Milan the Italian Press referred to the Eighth

Army’s march into Tripoli as the blackest day in the history of the Italian Empire. All the newspapers console their readers by saying the loss of Tripolitania is only temporary, as already the Axis »s preparing a counter-offensive from Tunisia.