SHEER BLUFF

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 April 1943, Page 3

SHEER BLUFF

NAZI NORTH AFRICA CLAIM ROMMEL—VON ARNIM LINK-UP. EIGHTH ARMY PREPARING FOR NEXT BLOW. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, April 3. The Eighth Army is at preesnt reforming for the next blow aaginst the Afrika Korps, reports a correspondent attached to the Allied force headquarters. The Algiers radio states that advanced units of the Eighth Army have made contact with rearguards of the Afrika‘Korps 27 miles north of Gabes, and farther to the north the main body of the Afrika Korps continues to make a rapid retreat hammered by the Allied air forces. The radio adds that the Germans are reported to be holding large tank reserves to hurl against the Eighth Army at the right moment. Rommel in the meantime is making a determined effort to keep the First Army and the Eighth Army well apart by sowing wide minefields.

Reuter’s military correspondent says that in an announcement which was made in Berlin that Field-Marshal Rommel had joined up with General von Arnim was sheer propaganda bluff. The German commanders’ forces formed a continuous line when Rommel retired behind the Mareth Line. There is no indication that Rommel has withdrawn the bulk of his forces any great distance north of the Wadi Akarit, where the enemy is in such strength as to require an attack on a considerable scale to dislodge him. The enemy has also taken precautions to protect his left flank with forces which will be able to put up stiff resistance against the American columns which are aiming for the coast to intercept his main body when it begins the final withdrawal northward. AXIS CLAIM ATTACK ON ALLIED CONVOY. LONDON, April 3. The Berlin radio says that Axis bombers and torpedo planes Jast night attacked a strongly-protected giant British convoy west of Algiers, resulting in the probable destruction of two transports totalling 14,000 tons, and also a destroyer, which was left motionless and listing. The British Admiralty states that during operations off Tunisia, an enemy aircraft was shot down by the trawler H.M.S. Fluellen. NAVAL FORCES AT HAND & READY FOR ACTION. IN EVENT OF ENEMY EVACUATION. LONDON, April 3. “The Royal Navy’s striking power in the Mediterranean has been reinforced, both east and west of the Sicilian Channel, to meet any attempt that Rommel makes at a ‘Dunkirk,’” says a British United Press correspondent with the British fleet in the Mediterranean. “It‘is impossible to disclose what reinforcements have arrived but warships, guns and manpower which were available during the advance from El Alamein to Tripoli have been added, and our forces are ready to strike if an evacuation materialises. “Some officers envisage a naval pincer attack from both sides of the Sicilian Channel, combined with heavy aerial attacks and thrusts from speedy British and American motor torpedoboats and submarines. The enemy possesses similar forces, but the distance to Europe favours the Allies.”