MASS EVACUATION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 April 1943, Page 3

MASS EVACUATION

NOT VET IN PROGRESS BUT SOME TROOPS PROBABLY BEING SENT AWAY. SUCCESSFUL ALLIED AIR ATTACKS. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 9.50 a.m.) RUGBY, April 20. The recent massacres of German transport planes off the Tunisian coast are not to be taken as proof that a mass evacuation is in progress. It seems reasonable to suppose that, with the withdrawal into Northern Tunisia, enemy troops hitherto engaged on lines of communication have become superfluous and are bein£ sent back. There is also the possibility that stores in Tunisia are limited, and that therefore men for whom no specific job can be found become encumbrances. Bad weather yesterday restricted the activities of Allied bombers, but fighters and fighter-bombers made their usual sweeps and patrols. Twenty-five Axis planes were reported slrot down by the North-West African Air Force, 21 over the Gulf of Tunis. Twelve were Junkers transports. The total of enemy aircraft shot down on Sunday and Monday is given as 112, including 70 Junkers transports flying on the supply route between Sicily and Tunis. Mitchells and Bostons, escorted by Spitfires, yesterday blasted the La Sebela airfield and scored hits on the La Marsa landing ground, while Flying Fortresses scored hits on the railway yard and in an industrial sector of Tunis.

British troops are using an armoured self-propelled 25-pounder gun, mounted on a Valentine tank chassis, as divisional artillery. It has excellent shell power and general performance, and is a formidable anti-tank weapon.