SIMULTANEOUS ATTACKS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 April 1943, Page 3

SIMULTANEOUS ATTACKS

BY FIRST AND EIGHTH ARMIES IN TUNISIA Enemy Positions Stormed in Bitter Fighting ENFIDAVILLE LINE REPORTED BROKEN GERMAN AIR CONVOY COMPLETELY DESTROYED LONDON, April 23. In Tunisia, the British First Army has launched a fullscale attack 45 miles south-west of Tunis and has also attacked further positions near Medjez el Bab. On the Eighth Army s front, General Montgomery’s troops have forged ahead six or seven miles up the coast beyond Enfidaville. Allied fighters wiped out an entire force of 20 German transport planes bound for Tunisia, together with ten escorting aircraft. Both the First and the Eighth armies are now battling furiously against the Axis mountain fortifications in Northern Tunisia. Men of General Anderson’s First Army, in their first full-scale assault, attacked at 2 o’clock yesterday morning. A correspondent states that British advance guards at one point have pushed forward six miles beyond a road. Infantry also ' attacked further north against a strongly-fortified enemy position, north-east of Medjez el Bab and overlooking the road to Tunis. The troops attacked the hill after a tremendous barrage. Four hundred guns poured their fire against the enemy positions. Many squadrons of aircraft also pounded the enemy defences.

The first objective was a line of hills. The attacking troops reached some of these according to plan. Then the enemy put in a heavy counter-attack and the attacking forces had to give up some valuable high ground, but only for a little while. The British infantry went back and recaptured all of the lost ground. * Reports state that troops of the Eighth Army have pushed forward six or seven miles up the coast beyond Enfidaville. They are having just as bitter fighting as the First Army. The enemy is not yielding an inch of ground until he can no longer hold it. A communique states that the Eighth Army has beaten back strong enemy counter-attacks with considerable loss to the enemy. A correspondent states that to all intents and purposes the enemy’s Enfidaville line has crumpled. The main news of the air war is of Allied fighters smashing another flight of giant air transports bound for Tunisia. In ten minutes Spitfires and Kittyhawks shot down every one of a formation of Messerschmitt 3235, Germany’s giant new sixengine power gliders, as well as ten escorting fighters. Four Allied planes were lost. The transport planes were carrying troops and petrol. They were of the largest type in use so far in this war and carry over 10 tons of material or up to 140 men fully equipped. Aircraft from Malta shot down four more German transport aircraft yesterday off Sicily and fighter-bombers gave the Sicilian port of Syracuse its heaviest pounding to date.