TWO-WAY SQUEEZE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 March 1943, Page 4

TWO-WAY SQUEEZE

AGAINST ROMMEL’S FORCES FEARS INDICATED IN ENEMY REPORTS. CONTRADICTORY ASSERTIONS. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.55 a.m.) LONDON, March 18. With a little less than a hundred miles separating the Eighth Army from the French and American forces, under General Anderson, advancing towards Gabes, a twoway squeeze against Rommel’s forces on the Mareth Line has begun. A British United Press correspondent at Algiers says that our forces near the coast have improved their positions, while the Eighth Army is maintaining an artillery bombardment of the Mareth Line. The correspondent adds that some of our most advanced airfields before the Mareth Line are under almost constant shellfire, because they are so close to the enemy lines. The German news agency now states that General Montgomery’s attacks against the Mareth Line, which at first appeared to be on a large scale, were really no more than local operations, but the Eighth Army has clearly completed its deployment. While the German news agency minimised the extent of the Eighth Army’s attack, General Goebbels’s new international information bureau stated that: “Lively fighting before the Mareth Line continues. The 51st British Division attacked throughout yesterday with strong infantry forces, but were repelled with heavy losses.” , Earlier the Berlin correspondent of a German-controlled agency reported that Montgomery’s attack against the Mareth Line had assumed such proportions that it could be described as a real offensive, and added that pressure against the Axis lines was increasing hourly. ATTACK ON GAFSA TOWN TAKEN WITHOUT LOSS. X WAVES OF BOMBERS POUND -> ENEMY. (Received This Day, Noon.) LONDON, March 18. According to the Algiers radio, Rommel is keeping up a heavy artillery fire, trying to harass the Eighth Army’s preparations for an offensive. United States troops recaptured Gafsa without the loss of a single soldier, says an Associated Press correspondent with the American forces. He adds that the Americans met only scattered small arms fire on the outskirts of Gafsa, but American howitzers opened the assault and knocked out an Italian battery. Waves of American bombers pounded the enemy withdrawing along congested roads. A Reuter correspondent says (that after entering Gafsa the Americans advanced and occupied Lola, at the southeastern edge of the town, and also a hill, Djebel Rekaik, six miles east of Gafsa. The attack against Gafsa began with an artillery barrage at 7.30 a.m., after which Mitchell bombers pounded the defences. The American infantry attacked at 10 a.m., from the north and north-east, where on the night previously they had taken up positions. Gafsa was occupied shortly after midday. The British counter-attacked in the Temara region and restored by nightfall a dent in our line. The British also counter-attacked and made some headway against Axis forces who overran French positions further north. The Berlin radio claims that Axis forces west of Sed Jenane, after a surprise attack, forced a break through on a wide front, and says fresh American forces are concentrated westwards of the Ousseltia-Pichon area, “probably for a new attack against Kairouan and the Faid Pass.”