HOLDING ON GRIMLY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 March 1943, Page 3

HOLDING ON GRIMLY

WITHIN MARETH LINE DEFENCES

EIGHTH ARMY FORCES. UNDER STORM OF ENEMY FIRE. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, March 25. “Forces of the Eighth Army are still holding grimly to a number of positions inside enemy territory, where they are being subjected to terrific fire from artillery, mortars and machine-guns from both flanks and the rear.” This statement by the “Daily Mails correspondent with the Eighth Army supports the Algiers radio report that the British continue to hold an important bridgehead within Rommel s fortified zone. “The grim heroism of these troops,” says the “Mail” correspondent, “is beyond praise. They are beating off attack after attack, and showing superhuman bravery in face of fearful odds. They are hanging on to the captured dugouts and trenches, though the Germans are almost on top of them and all round them, and desperate battles ’. are raging in a maze of fortifications, with clusters of pill-boxes and sandbagged machine-gun posts encircled by deep ditches and a network of barbed wire. .... “Italian, German and British troops in some areas are all mixed up, but the British are holding out' with great determination. The moon is so bright that the fighting continues all night. The main point at present is that we are still partially across the worst obstacle, namely, the Wadi Zigzau. “The German prisoners, who are exhausted, unshaven and mud-stained, include wounded veterans from Russia who were sent to Africa after recovering in Germany.” FORMIDABLE OBSTACLE. “The Times” correspondent with the Eighth Army reveals that the bed of the Wadi Zigzau proved to be muddier and softer than our reconnaissance led us to believe, and the primary reason for our advance being checked was that the sappers were unable to build a firm causeway before Rommel coun-ter-attacked. The sappers are bearing the brunt of the fighting, and till they establish a firm causeway our heavy tanks cannot engage the panzers among the Mareth pillboxes. Rommel is well aware of this, and every available weapon is pouring fire on the crossing places. Giving the latest unofficial review of the battles in southern Tunisia, Algiers radio today says that violent fighting is going on in front of the German fortified positions in the Mareth area. Heavy British artillery is shelling the Axis lines, while the Germans and Italians are throwing tanks and infantry against General Montgomery’s positions. In the El Hamma region, the radio says, the British troops who had bitten deep into Rommel’s flank have smashed the Axis counter-attacks and are now in complete occupation of a hill some 40 miles east of Gabes and overlooking the whole of the Gabes Plain. In the El Guetar and Maknassi regions German counter-attacks have also been repulsed, and a violent battle is taking place between the United States main force and the enemy about six miles east of Maknassi at a point where the road enters the coastal plain.