ATTEMPT BY ROMMEL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 April 1943, Page 3

ATTEMPT BY ROMMEL

TO SLOW ALLIED COASTAL ADVANCE AND KEEP TOUCH WITH FLANK TROOPS. FIERCE FIGHTING IN NORTH. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 9.45 a.m.) RUGBY, April 1. Yesterday was a really great day for Allied air forces says a correspondent in North Africa. In the course of the day no fewer than 31 enemy aircraft were destroyed for the loss of 12 of ours. The air forces again collaborated unceasingly with the armies, bombing and strafing enemy troops, destroying vehicles, harassing retreating tanks and vehicles and making way for the Eighth Army’s advance north of Oudref. The Germans have hastily organised a line of fortified positions, with which our forces are in contact. Rommel evidently intends to slow up as much as possible the advance from the south to co-ordinate his own movement with defensive operations further north; and to make an effective junction with the forces defending his western flank. This would enable him to preserve an important force with which to reach the Bizerta-Tunis bridgehead. In the .Sed Jenane area we have made good progress since the capture of the village on Tuesday. Fighting was fierce and one battalion of infantry made eight bayonet charges, the last of which was led by its commanding officer. GOOD BEGINNING IN CONQUEST OF TUNISIA ALLIED FORCES CLOSING IN. PROBLEMS FACING ENEMY. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.47 a.m.) RUGBY, April 1. The victory of the Mareth-Gabes quadrilateral is complete, and General Montgomery's invasion of Southern Tunisia is merging into comprehensive operations planned by Generals Eisenhower and Alexander. Forward troops of the Eighth Army are pressing along the the coast from Gabes towards Sfax, harassing the strong rearguards with which Rommel is covering his retreat. Already they are almost in sight, of American forces forming the right win'g of the Allied front facing east. A well-informed observer points out that we are seeing that process of “squeezing together” so dear to the heart of all German strategists. It seems evident that the American forces are much stronger than they were a short time ago. One American threat is through Maknassi and Faid towards Sfax and the other through Fondouk towards the holy city of Kairouan and the port of Sousse. In the north, a local British advance along the coast road through Sed Jenane may have been intended to anticipate further attacks by General von Arnim, who is no doubt under orders to do everything possible to prevent the First Army concentrating against the Tunisian tip. The Eighth Army’s advance consolidates the American right wing and shortens the Allied line thus deepening available reserves. Furthermore, it brings with it air power and sea power. In the central belt of the coastal plain are many enemy airfields. As these become available to the fighters and bombers of Air Marshal Coningham’s Desert Air Force, Rommel’s supply depots and communications will come under devastating' bombardment from all directions; Similarly the British command of these waters, which promptly converted Tobruk, Benghazi and then Tripoli into secure and important supply bases, will apply the same process to Gabes and other ports as the armies advance on land. Air power from the west and south, and sea and air power from the east and north, will steadily forge an iron ring round the final fortress of the Tunisian tip. As the area at the . enemy’s disposal contracts, he is obliged to ex--tricate himself from one dangerous situation after another. Whether he stands where he is or retreats with his customary speed to the neighbourhood of Sousse and Kairouan, a disaster of the first magnitude confronts the German Command, but there is nowhere any disposition to assume that the last battle before the invasion of Europe will be anything less than a stern struggle.