ALLIED ARMIES IN TUNISIA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 March 1943, Page 3

ALLIED ARMIES IN TUNISIA

Advances in South, Centre & North DEVELOPING THREATS TO MARETH LINE AND TO ENEMY-OCCUPIED PORTS LONDON, March 28. Advances in the south, centre and north have been made by the Allied armies in Tunisia. Their most important success has been behind the Mareth Line, where the British Eighth Army force which by-passed that line has swept on to the outskirts of El Hamma (20 miles west of the port of Gabes), after fierce all-day fighting, in which the enemy was forced back to new positions. The Algiers radio and correspondents at Allied headquarters state that advance troops are now only 16 miles from Gabes. , . . xx . Official news of the fighting in the Mareth zone is that the Eighth Army has also made an advance south-west of Mareth and taken prisoners. This is the first time for several days that an Allied communique has given the direction of the frontal assault on the enemy’s positions. This looks as if General Montgomery has shifted the main weight of his attack from the coast to a point further south. On the central front, General Eisenhower reports that the Gafsa-Maknassi sectors remain quiet. Further north, the Americans have taken a place on the main road running east for 20 miles to Kairouan and then to the port of Sousse. This force has advanced 20 miles in a day. The Germans also had to give ground m the face of Allied attacks near the northern coast of Tunisia. The weather has been bad for flying in the past 24 hours, though the Allied air attack has not slackened.