TAKEN BY EIGHTH ARMY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 March 1943, Page 3

TAKEN BY EIGHTH ARMY

in Advance on Mareth Line SKY FULL OF ALLIED BOMBERS AND FIGHTERS AMERICANS CONTINUING THEIR DRIVE t LONDON, March 22. Agency despatches from Allied Headquarters in North Africa state that the British Eighth Army is advancing towards the Mareth Line along a six-mile front in the coastal sector. The Germans are putting up a stiff opposition. The British forces are reported to have taken their preliminary objectives and to have cleared enemy minefields > for tanks to follow through. Heavy fighting is going on. All correspondents stress the terrific weight of the air attack the Germans have to face. It must be making Rommel and his troops think of El Alamein again. The sky is crowded with Allied fighters and. bombers, which are attacking enemy troops, tanks, airfields and gun positions—in fact, anything that can be attacked. Not only is the Mareth Line area being attacked, but the corridor for 60 or 70 miles beyond the line as well. One important landing ground near Gabes had five heavy raids in 24 hours. One result of the Allied air offensive is that the German air force has not shown its nose over the battle area; Allied planes are also putting down a barrage on many of the enemy’s key supply positions, including several in southern Italy. North-west of the Mareth Line, United States forces continue their advance. One armoured spearhead is nearing Maknassi and another spearhead, a little to the south, yesterday captured a place 20 miles beyond Gafsa. The Americans took 1,400 prisoners, all Italians. In Northern Tunisia the Germans yesterday captured Matsa, a small railway station about eight miles from the Mediterranean.