BEYOND TRIPOLI

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 January 1943, Page 4

BEYOND TRIPOLI

ADVANCE OF THE EIGHTH ! ARMY OBSTRUCTIONS AND SOME RESISTANCE. ENEMY POUNDED HEAVILY FROM AIR. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.5 a.m.) RUGBY, January 26. A. correspondent with the Eighth Army states that, while today’s communique refers only to advances by our forward troops, there js no doubt that we made progress i’n all sectors yesterday, perhaps more in the south than along the coastal road. In this westward drive beyond Tripoli, General Montgomery’s forces are meeting much the same difficulties as they did east of the city last week. Roads are mined and in many places obstructed and blown up. The crosscountry going is bad and yesterday there was considerable resistance from enemy rearguards. The enemy air bases of Medenin and Gardane are getting a very heavy pounding from the Allied air forces and it is clear that one of our immediate objectives is to neutralise and contain these bases and more of the forward landing grounds which are threatening Tripoli. It is essential to get Tripoli Harbour working again to replace Benghazi, now left 500 miles behind, as our principal supply base, so we are driving the Luftwaffe as far back from Tripoli as we can. A Cairo correspondent says the Axis air attack on the advancing Eighth Army yesterday was negligible. Allied fighter and bomber attacks were continued on Zuara, where a motor vessel in the harbour was badly damaged with a direct hit. Without interruption from enemy fighters, bomber sweeps were carried out between Sabratha and Zuara and over the Tunisian frontier. GRIM OUTLOOK FOR GERMANS IN TUNISIA. STAND BY ROMMEL UNLIKELY. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.45 a.m.) RUGBY, January 26. The prospect of Rommel fighting another delaying action, this time at the Mareth Line, is being discussed in London. It is doubted whether he could make a more determined bid to halt the Eighth Army than he did at El Agheila or at the Wadi Zemzem, f,or it seems unlikely that General von Arnheim, aaginst whom the whole of the Anglo-American armies are piling up, can give him any reinforcement. If Rommel is unable to do. more than fight a delaying action on this favourable position, it seems unlikely that he can defend south-east Tunisia at all, or do more than attempt to join General von Arnheim in Tunis and await a formidable Allied assault from west and south, from the skies and from the sea. It is with this grim prospect before them that the German commanders will be watching the fate of their colleagues at Stalingrad. ENEMY REPORT SOME SUCCESSES CLAIMED IN TUNISIA. (Received This Day, 9.45 a.m.) LONDON, January 26. General Montgomery is planning a pincer movement against Rommels forces, according to the Berlin radio. “A large number of men and strong tank formations,” it says, “are concentrating along the coastal road leading to the Tunisian border and obviously General Montgomery is again attempting an encirclement of the Germans. The radio also stated that a force of British tanks was seen southwards. The German High Command has disclosed that Rommel’s army has been divided into two sections, one of infantry and tanks, proceeding along the coastal road and the other, only tanks, driving into South Tunisia. The Berlin radio report claims that the Germans in Tunisia have advanced in the western sector and have driven the French in the central sector into the Atlas Mountains and now hold.all strategically important points.