MARETH LINE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 March 1943, Page 3

MARETH LINE

POUNDED BY ALLIED BOMBERS IN SPITE OF BAD WEATHER MALTA-BASED BOMBERS RAID SICILY. FIGHTERS ATTACK LOCOMOTIVES IN ITALY. LONDON, March 15. Bad weather is keeping a check on both land and air operations in Tunisia. A correspondent says that yesterday was a quiet day, though even so, the Mareth Line did not escape its daily pounding by Allied bombers. Fighter escorts went along, too, in case the German pilots should brave the weather, but they did not. Other Spitfires and Warhawks on routine patrol all brought back the same report —no Luftwaffe. In Northern Tunisia, eight Heinkel torpedo-bombers did venture out, but they would have been better advised to stay at home, for all they achieved. Spitfires intercepted them off the coast of Algeria, and in spite of low cloud and rain, one Heinkel was shot down and the rest were scattered, and some of them damaged. The Spitfires had no losses. R.A.F .bombers based on Malta last night raided targets in Sicily. Fighter intruders destroyed or damaged two locomotives at either end of a train in the toe of Italy. MASSING FOR BATTLE EIGHTH ARMY COLUMNS. IMMENSELY FORMIDABLE CONCENTRATION. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, March 15. “The Eighth Army’s weapons and vehicles are moving up and massing for battle,” says a 8.8. C. correspondent with the army in northern Tunisia. “All day long the columns of traffic have been speeding forward, and their size and strength have to be seen to be believed.” TRAIL OP DESTRUCTION LAID BY MIDDLE EAST AIR FORCES. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, March 14. More than 30,000 operational sorties were made by the R.A.F. in support of British and Indian troops during the Middle East offensive, according to official figures released from Delhi. At the end of 1942 more than 500 aircraft and more than 100 enemy tanks and armoured cars and some 5000 transport vehicles lay in junk piles between El Alamein and the borders of Tripolitania. HEAVY CASUALTIES IN RECENT ALLIED RAID ON SARDINIA. ADMITTED BY ROME RADIO. LONDON, March 14. The Rome radio announced that 652 persons were killed and hundreds injured, including a number of civil servants, at Cagliari, capital of Sardinia, during a recent Allied raid. Cagliari has a peace time population of 100,000. AIR COMBAT AMERICANS IN ACTION OVER GABES. BALANCE OF LOSSES WELL AGAINST ENEMY. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 9.55 a.m.) RUGBY, March 15. Four enemy aircraft were destroyed and at least six were probably destroyed or damaged by American fighters over the battle area south-east of Gabes on Saturday, according to a Cairo message. Warhawks, after flying through heavy anti-aircraftfire, encountered enemy fighters, which were sent down in flames under the Warhawks’ machine-guns. Three American fighters are missing.