FRENCH TROOPS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 April 1943, Page 3

FRENCH TROOPS

PART PLAYED IN MARETH BATTLE AXIS FORCES DISLODGED FROM HEIGHTS. CONTACT WITH NEW ZEALAND DIVISION. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, March 31. The part played by French troops in the Mareth battle has been described by a French correspondent with General Leclerc’s forces. He said: “When, at dawn on March 29, General Freyberg’s column of New Zealanders plunged into the valley between El Hamma and Gabes hot on the trail of the routed enemy, from the surrounding hills suddenly dashed men shouting with the frenzy of battle and waving their blue caps wildly in the air. General Leclerc’s Fighting French, who had fought their way across 2000 miles of plain, rock, mountain and desert, from the Chad, were taking part in the battle of the Mareth Line by the side of their allies. “In the valley, below, dozens of heavy and medium tanks lumbered along, throwing up clouds of sand. When the sand cleared swarms of Kittyhawks, barely skimming the ground, appeared for an instant and then disappeared into the curtain, while far above the squadrons Spitfires guarded the battlefield from Axis intruders. “In General Montgomery’s plan for the capture of the ravine, the French troops were to put out of action enemy batteries which were checking the progress of the Allied tanks from the heights of Jebel Medab and Jebel Tebaga. The French had picked their way across the ranges of steep-sided mountains cut by deep ravines, country where no vehicle could penetrate, and guns were dragged up the slope by the men themselves. “The enemy position seemed impregnable. In the evening Junkers 88s went into action, turning the French positions into a living hell, but three were brought down by the French anti-aircraft guns. On the following z morning Rommel, in a last desperate effort, replaced the Italians by crack German shock troops. Hand-to-hand fighting took place and the enemy fell back into the ravine, leaving many dead. “Today (Tuesday) General Leclerc’s 'motorised squadrons passed through Gabes at the side of General Freyberg’s victorious men.” FIGHTING PLANES USE AGAINST ENEMY TANKS. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, March 31. Giving a clue to the meaning of Mr Churchill’s recent statement that General Freyberg’s break-through was aided by “novel” forms of intense air attack, Reuter’s Cairo correspondent says, “The resistance at El Hamma was broken after air attacks in which, for the first time, heavily-armed fighters were used against tanks which were actually drawn up before our tanks for battle. . The Allied airmen made more than 300 sorties within the 2| hours, in which they dropped all their bombs and exhausted their ammunition. Apart from this terrific burst, the air force struck heavily against the Axis troops by night and day, keeping them continually jumpy.”