ANTICIPATED IN TUNISIA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 April 1943, Page 3

ANTICIPATED IN TUNISIA

Enemy Still Bringing in Reinforcements IN SPITE OF HEAVY AIR AND SEA LOSSES ALLIED AIR FORMATIONS STRIKING HARD AT MANY TARGETS LONDON, April 18. A correspondent with the Eighth Army states that the enemy is still reinforcing his troops in Tunisia by sea and by air. Allied air forces have made more big raids, on Axis airfields and bases and on enemy shipping in the Mediterranean. There are growing signs from Tunisia that the Axis land patrolling now going on is leading up to one of the heaviest and bitterest battles yet fought between the Allied and German forces in this war. A correspondent, in a delayed despatch, says the most significant pointer to the way the enemy regards the fighting in Tunisia is that he is still making efforts to reinforce his troops, both by air and by sea. It will be mainly a German force that the Allied troops will have to face and our men, with old scores to pay off, are itching for the moment to come. The enemy reinforcements have been arriving in Tunisia not only in big convoys of transport planes, of which Allied fighters have taken a heavy toll, but also in power barges under cover of fighter screens. What has been happening in the air is indicated by official figures covering’ the last three weeks. In that period 519 Axis aircraft have been shot out of the sky and well over 1,000 destroyed or damaged on the ground. Against this the Allies have lost 175 planes, fewer than ten of them on the ground. Allied aircraft are ranging freely over Tunisia, Sardinia, Sicily and Italy by day and night and the enemy’s air force is very much on the defensive. In the last 48 hours attacks have been made on enemy docks and shipping in Tunisia and across the Mediterranean. Airfields, seaplane bases and railway yards have also been raided. Yesterday’s actions cost the Axis over 40 aircraft. The Allies lost 12.