ALLIED ADVANCE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 March 1943, Page 4

ALLIED ADVANCE

IN CENTRAL & SOUTH TUNISIA LITTLE AXIS RESISTANCE. ENEMY THRUST TOWARDS BEJA HURLED BACK. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, Noon) LONDON, March 3. A general Allied advance in central and southern Tunisia is continuing almost without resistance. Our troops over the whole northern area, backed by heavy guns, are maintaining pressure against the German positions. Meanwhile, the Berlin radio admits an embryo outflanking movement? “A small British fighting group, not strong enough to operate independently, it says, “is stationed westwards of Rommel’s defence zone.” The British United Press correspondent in Algiers says the Germans have shown fight only in the northern sector, again thrusting towards Beja yesterday, when a small Axis infantry force, three miles north-east of Medjez El Bab, advanced. The enemy at first made progress, until the men of a famous British Midlands regiment dashed in and drove them back to the “Hants Gap,” where General Alexander, visiting the front, saw 25 pounders bombarding the retreating Axis forces. The Germans fell back two miles under a murderous fire. Burning vehicles which the enemy had abandoned included thirteen tanks at one time blazing fiercely. During a day of intense Allied air activity over North Africa on Wednesday, Flying Officer Paddy Chambers, from New Zealand, shot down four Italian bombers in twenty minutes, while patrolling over the sea.