ENEMY THRUST

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 February 1943, Page 3

ENEMY THRUST

MAY DELAY ALLIES’ PLANS OPERATIONS IN PRELIMINARY STAGE. PREPARATIONS FOR DECISIVE STRUGGLE. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, February 20. The German thrust in Tunisia, it is thought, may perhaps delay the Allied plans which were made at Casablanca, but it is also pointed out that the operations are still in the preliminary stage and they will not necessarily interfere with the preparations for a decisive struggle. The enemy has been compelled to divert further strong forces to Africa, because it is essential that he should try to postpone a mass Allied assault while he still faces attack from the east. Rommel’s advance was well timed and placed. It was made at the point of junction of the Allied armies at a time when General Anderson’s troops were still bogged by the weather in the north. General Montgomery was still well on the wrong side of the defences in the south, and when the French had been withdrawn the Americans who replaced them were not ready to hold a strong line. The whole front was thinly held, and the obvious thing to do was to withdraw on stronger forces. MARETH DEFENCES LINE LATELY DEMILITARISED. HASTY GERMAN FORTIFICATIONS. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) NEW YORK, February 20. The Washington correspondent of the “New York Times,” Harold Callender, states that according to information there the Mareth line was completely demilitarised, all guns being removed, by the demands of the Italians after the collapse of France. Later the Arabs stole the barbed wire and telegraph equipment, and they also removed all wooden installations for fuel. Only the unremovable steel and concrete structures remained, which the Nazis hastily refortified after the

Allied landings in North Africa in November. Experts express the opinion that the restored Mareth Line is not as good a defensive position as it was originally, but it is still regarded as a useful holding point for Rommel’s forces withdrawing toward the north. MUCH ACTIVITY DEVELOPMENTS ON TUNISIAN FRONT. ENEMY PATROLS REPULSED. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 9.45 a.m.) RUGBY, February 21. A North African communique states: “On the morning of February 20 a heavy enemy attack developed in the area south of Kasserine and resulted in local enemy gains. Fighter aircraft attacked enemy transportation in this area. Near Sbiba, patrols of enemy infantry and tanks were again repulsed. In the northern sector our patrol activity continued. On the night of February 19 and last night enemy objectives behind the lines were bombed. Three of our aircraft are missing.”