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Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 April 1943, Page 3

FULL USE

OF ARTILLERY & MINES MADE BY WITHDRAWING ENEMY. DESTRUCTIVE ALLIED AIR ATTACKS. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, March 31. The Germans are making full use of artillery and minefields to delay the Eighth Army’s advance, and they are screening the retreat with a strong rearguard force composed of crack troops who are fighting hard. Many reports speak of fierce bayonet clashes as our men tackle strongpoints along the line of the retreat. Our air forces have concentrated the full weight' of their attack along the coastal road ahead of the Eighth Army. The fighter-bombers and fighters have once again found ideal targets, concentrations of 200 vehicles and more—and are striking with deadly accuracy. A correspondent says there is a continuous line of fires spreading along the road from Gabes and mile after miles is littered with burnt-out equipment. Another correspondent says that the results are' not as great as those on the road from El Alamein, but it is true that the coastal road is a grim place for the Axis forces to move along. In places it is a chaos of death and destruction. NAVY IN ACTION SHELLING COAST ROAD NORTH OF GABES ALLIED ARMIES ADVANCING IN ALL SECTORS. DEADLY ACCURATE AIR STRAFING (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 9.35 a.m.) LONDON, March 31. The British Navy is shelling the retreating Germans along the coast north of Gabes. Violent battles are going on in the regions of Ousseltia and Paid. The Rome radio says the British are throwing large reinforcements into fresh, violent attacks in south-east Tunisia. .The Allied armies are advancing in all sectors in Tunisia. The Eighth Army is continuing its victorious progress towards Sousse. The First Army has launched an offensive which should pin von Arnim to the defence of Bizerta and Tunis, without any possibility of aiding the shattered remnants of the Afrika Korps. General Anderson’s main blow, says Reuter’s northern Tunisian correspondent, was struck in the coastal sector, from Djebel Abiod along the road to Mateur, and thus far all phases have been completely successful. British forces further south, supported by artillery, carried out a raid in some strength in the area north of Medjez el Bab early yesterday morning. Some prisoners were taken. Our troops and Moroccan levies in the north occupied Sed Jenane after a surprise ' attack which caused the Germans to retreat in a thunderstorm. All the set objectives were attained and prisoners are rolling in. Groups of Italians are wandering about, waiting To surrender. British infantry, midway between Djebal Aboid and Taera, cut the Sed Jenane road, bringing the Tamera region virtually under our control again. The Germans, in an effort to save Tamora, from which the First Army was forced last week, blew up a road bridge and also a road and heavily mined the area, giving the British sappers plenty of work. Von Arnim left a strong rearguard to cover his withdrawal. This is now being engaged. Meanwhile Reuter’s correspondent with American forces reports that General Patton’s forces, advancing from El Guetar, reached the junction of the Gabes and Kebili roads at 2.30 p.m. yesterday, after infantry had mopped up' ridges, bringing them within 60 miles of Gabes. A continuous line of fires is strung along the road north of Gabes after the Allies’ fierce, concentrated and deadly accurate strafing of the retreating German columns. A British United Press correspondent with the American Fifth Army says the Axis forces, after a daylong battle, failed to close the Maknassi Pass to the Americans. “Axis forces,” he said, “three times attacked in an effort to dislodge the Americans from vital hill positions north of Maknassi, but failed and suffered heavy losses, while the American losses were light.” LEFT TO THEIR FATE ITALIAN TROOPS WITH ROMMEL. TRANSPORT TAKEN AWAY. LONDON, March 31. The “Daily Telegraph’s” correspondent at the Allied headquarters asserts that Rommel again took away transport from the Italians, who constitute the majority of the Axis troops inside the triangle at El Hamma, Matmata, and Shott el Jerid. They are now cut off in a hopeless position and many are unable to catch up with Rommel’s retreating columns. The Italians probably have not tried very hard, preferring to slay behind and surrender. It will be recalled that the Germans followed the same practice when they were defeated on the El Alamein front. The military correspondent of the “Daily' Express” considers that Rommel’s retreat will gain in speed, because it began too late, and should have been started immediately it became plain that General Montgomery had shifted the weight of his attack for the outflanking move. It is presumed that six Italian divisions were left behind to fend for themselves. AXIS THRUSTS SMASHED BY NEW ZEALAND GUNS. IN EASTERN TUNISIA. (Official War Correspondent, N.Z.E.F.) ALGIERS, March 30. Details of the magnificent part which New Zealanders played in beating off five heavy tank and infantry attacks by Rommel against the Eighth Army in eastern Tunisia have now been released. The two ’strongest attacks, including an afternoon thrust by 40 of the best tanks of the Afrika Korps and 1000 German infantry were against a sector held by our men. Again the guns which so often had

held off the German armour south of El Alamein broke up the attacks, this time in the third country and the third year in which the New Zealanders have fought the Africa Korps. It is known that part of the German force which was used in these attacks was the same panzer force against which our gunners fought a day-long battle below Mersa Matruh almost a year ago. The battles before the Mareth Line were the first time our guns had been fully in action since the great barrages at El Alamein, and the first time they had fought back German attacks since Rommel’s final thrust toward Egypt last August. Writing from Medenine after the battle, a New Zealand front-line correspondent says that by moving 200 miles in 24 hours our troops joined battle in Tunisia and, within less than a week after taking up new positions, fought a successful action on Tunisian soil. They moved at night from the orchards of Tripoli over low scrub-covered country toward the hills of eastern Tunisia.

Barely had they settled in their new positions when, under an early-morn-ing fog, the enemy launched a determined attack toward Medenine. This point of our line confronted an escarpment on the fringe of the high country, and it was from this escarpment that the Germans debouched a strong force of tanks. As the tanks drove across the intervening country the New Zealand artillery engaged them heavily. Swinging south in smaller groups, the German armour again met the heaviest fire of our guns, which knocked out five of the tanks. This was so salutary a check that again the Germans changed the direction of their main tank thrust, while their infantry dug in opposite our troops. Heavy artillery fire met him all along the line, and during the afternoon, having suffered further tank losses, the enemy withdrew. Still another thrust came later in the afternoon, when upward of 1000 infantry and 40 tanks strongly attacked the New Zealanders’ sector. Again it wilted and finally broke up under a concentrated defensive barrage. By nightfall, though the artillery exchanges continued, the Germans had relinquished the offensive all along the line. Both infantry and armour had taken severe punishment. The only contact which was made that night was when parties of New Zealanders went out and took prisoner some of the crews of the knocked-out German tanks. Continuous R.A.F. fighter sweeps and concentrated antiaircraft fire overhead kept off the German aircraft attempting to strafe our lines. Of an enemy raid while he was writing his story, the correspondent said: “Our Bofors gunners shot off the tail of an Italian fighter-bomber, anti as it spiralled down they also shatter-1 ed one of its wings. A moment later it crashed in flames well out of control.”