MADE BY GERMANS IN TUNISIA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 February 1943, Page 3

MADE BY GERMANS IN TUNISIA

Important Railway Threatened FIERCE FIGHTING CONTINUES EIGHTH ARMY NEARING MARETH LINE LONDON, February 22. . In Central Tunisia, German tanks and troops are thrusting beyond the Kasserine Pass in a bid to cut the important railway running from Tebassa north-eastward to Pont du Fahs. The latest news of the fighting comes from, a correspondent, who states that yesterday the strongest German attack was made with 70 tanks and motorised infantry towards Thala. The enemy advanced ten miles. Fierce fighting is still going on eight miles from Thala, which is held by British armoured forces. The Germans attacked in brilliant moonlight and the latest news is that though they have suffered casualties and tank losses, they are still maintaining their pressure. Two lighter attacks were made along the Tebassa Road and the river running alongside it. These attacks gained about ten miles but American forces counter-attacked and pushed the enemy back almost to the gap itself. Heavy rain has fallen in Central Tunisia and the roads, which are poor tracks at the best of times, have been turned into morasses of mud. General Giraud has returned to the Tunisian battlefront to take over personal direction of the French troops there, in view of the recent change in the Allied defence positions. In Southern Tunisia advance patrols of the British Eighth Army are drawing nearer to the Ma-reth Line. A Cairo reporter states that every mile counts now and it will not be long' before the British forces are probing the positions of the line itself. Bad weather is keeping things pretty quiet in the air over both of the Tunisian battlefronts but further afield Allied bombers are making more attacks on the enemy’s sea lanes. The latest successes are direct hits on a large supply ship, a warship believed tb be a cruiser and two escort vessels off Sicily; on two merchant ships in the Central Mediterranean, and on two more near a Greek island north of Crete.