HEAVY ATTACK

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 March 1943, Page 4

HEAVY ATTACK

ON THE MARETH LINE GERMAN NEWS AGENCY GIVES DETAILS. ENEMY COAST COMMUNICATIONS CUT BY R.A.F. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.55 a.m.) LONDON, March 17. The German news agency announced that the British Eighth Army launched an attack against the Mareth Line last night. It added that the scale of the fighting cannot be judged from reports thus far available, but Berlin military quarters believe that this is a major attack. Heavy fighting must therefore be expected in Southern Tunisia. The British thrust was made at the coastal end of the Mareth Line at 11.30 p.m. It followed on a lively artillery barrage which increased until it became a veritable cannonade. The Algiers correspondent of the National Broadcasting Corporation reports that the R.A.F. has cut the railway between Gabes and Sfax at several points. The Germans are thus temporarily denied their only north-south transport line for heavy material. The road alongside the railway has also been damaged and will take several days to repair. Agency reports state that the Americans, moving on Gafsa, are only three miles north of the town, where they have now made contact with enemy tanks. The German news agency later stated that the Eighth Army attack was possibly the initial phase of a largescale offensive. Only part of General Montgomery’s artillery was in action on Tuesday night, when the attackers presumably aimed to obtain full information concerning the fighting strength and grouping of the Italian and German tank army. The Italians and Germans, generally speaking, it is added, were able to hold their positions, but it could be assumed that the British attack would continue and increase in strength. The Berlin radio declared that a considerable part of the Eighth Army on Tuesday night attacked advanced Mareth positions on a broad front, after considerable artillery preparation, but that the Italians and Germans held their advanced line and inflicted losses in a heavy battle. An Associated Press correspondent at Algiers says the Allied air forces are shuttle-bombing the Mareth Line, where Axis strongpoints have been shaken by tons of high explosives. Both sides have intensified their artillery activity. \