TOWN OF KASSERINE BEING EVACUATED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 February 1943, Page 3

TOWN OF KASSERINE BEING EVACUATED

Arms, Ammunition and Tanks Left Behind in Pass HEAVY ALLIED AIR ATTACKS ON ENEMY BASES ' LONDON, February 26. Despatches from Central Tunisia say that Rommel’s forces, after their speedy withdrawal from the Kasserine Pass, are evacuating the town of Kasserine, seven miles further on. One correspondent says that on the plains before him he could see the town of Kasserine quite clearly through binoculars and there was no sign of enemy activity there. The Allied forward patrols were fanning out through the pass on to the approaches to the town. Some reports say that Rommel’s forces are well on the road from Kasserine to Feriana, 20 miles distant. Back in the Pass itself, engineers are working fast to clear up the minefields and mess the enemy left behind him. Even in’the sunshine it is a grim sort of place, Everywhere there are signs of the four-day battle which saw the enemy thrust through the pass and retreat again. Especially, there are signs of the Italians, whom the Germans left behind them as a rearguard. Heaps of arms and ammunition. are scattered along the roadside, as well as a number of tanks and supply vehicles. Already, American tanks and artillery are massing near the pass, waiting for the engineers to give the all clear. North-west of Kasserine the Germans pushing forward near Sbeitla have also turned round and are now leaving behind them many transport vehicles and abandoned tanks. Allied patrols are hot on their heels and last evening had chased the Germans to less than 10 miles from Sbeitla. • It is significant that Sbeitla and Safsa have been heavily bombed by Allied aircraft. Bizerta was also raided and in Southern Tunisia, Gabes was pounded by Allied bombers based on both sides of it. Gabes is an important base just behind the Mareth Line. Allied troops have found the road through the narrow defile in the Kasserine Pass littered with German and Italian tanks, vehicles and guns—victims of the intense Allied bombing and a barrage by American guns, which had shelled the pass all through Wednesday. Otherwise the recapture of the pass, which the enemy left sown with mines, was achieved without a shot being fired. The Germans left behind Allied tanks and guns which they had captured but had not destroyed. The enemy is believed to have left the town of Kasserine (north-east of Feriana) and withdrawn his main forces, from the Gafsa area, farther south. It is reported that General Alexander, the new commander of the ground operations in Tunisia, visited Thala during the height of the German thrust when the enemy was only a few miles away. Further afield in the Mediterranean war zone other targets attacked included Naples and Crontone in Southern Italy and airfields and railway communications in Sicily.