ENTRY INTO GABES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 April 1943, Page 3

ENTRY INTO GABES

PEOPLE WELCOME BRITISH TROOPS an enthusiastic mayor. STORIES OF GERMAN LOOTING. LONDON, April 2. The forward patrpls of the Eighth Army are jabbing at Field-Marshal Rommel’s covering positions ,17 miles north, of Gabes along the Wadi el Akarit, the steep gully which runs from the easternmost arm of the salt lakes and the sea and cuts across the routes leading out of the Gajaes gap. Farther inland the Americans are slowly continuing their latest push eastward which was begun two days ago under cover of withering artillery fil A strong enemy counter-attack east of Sed Jenane in northern Tunisia is reported to have forced the British to make . a slight withdrawal. Allied troops have made an advance along the coast. . , , have been received of the scene during the occupation of Gabes. The first British troops to move through the shattered streets of the town were patrols from El Hamma, where the New Zealanders broke through. Then Highland infantry marched in with pipes playing. The Mayor of Gabes did not wait for the men to enter his town and went out to them. He stopped the first armoured car of the advancing column and shook hands warmly with a British brigadier. Then he pulled off one of his own French medals and pinned it on the brigadier’s battledress. Shortly after their arrival our troops saw a strange procession of men, women and children filing in, all carrying radio sets. These had been seized by the Germans, and the population had gone to the police station to get them back. German officers took away with them some of the best sets. The enemy also sezied about 1,000,000 francs from the local banks.