EVERY TANK

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 April 1943, Page 4

EVERY TANK

POSSESSED BY VON ARNIM THROWN INTO GOUBBELAT BATTLE. r ALLIED OUTFLANKING THRUST. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day ,Noon.) LONDON, April 25. “General von Arnim has thrown almost every tank he possesses into the great armoured battle raging for the Goubellat Gap,” says Reuter’s correspondent with the First Army. “The German tanks are smashing back against the British spearhead in repeated counter-attacks, but the latest reports say our troops are holding their positions.” An Associated Press correspondent in North Africa says General Alexander has hurled in British armour and serious fighting is occurring along the entire 140 mile front. Fourteen German tanks were destroyed in an armoured engagement ten miles south--east of Goubellat. It is officially announced in Algiers that French troops have retaken Jebel British infantry fought their way into Sidi Medien, 8 miles east of Medjez el Bab. Reuter says the objective was taken from the enemy at the bayonet point, after a heavy attack. The Germans launched a strong coun-ter-attack, forcing most of the British to withdraw. However British patrols remained behind to scour the ground and harass the enemy. A German attack on a peak gained by the British north-east of Medjez el Bab was completely broken up. British troops captured Argoubel, Mehilla and Separrjout, 5 miles north-east of Bou Arada. The battle for the Goubellat Gap is occurring on the plain north of the Eklourzia salt lake, which is nine miles south-east of Goubellat, which in turn is nine miles south-south-west of Medjez el Bab. The area is known as the Goubellat Gap because it offers the easiest route through rugged terrain to Pont du Fahs, whence roads lead to Tunis and Zaghouan. The latter the First Army’s most likely objective, because an advance in this direction would, outflank the enemy’s Hallouf Line, before which the Eighth Army is at present held. A British United Press correspondent with the Eighth Army described the Hallouf Line as stronger than the El Alamein Line. He added that if the First Army reaches the Zaghouan area, it will have created an outflanking wedge which will make the Eighth Army’s next move considerably easier. While the First Army’s armour is tak,ing a principal part in the Goubellat battle, its infantry is engaged in bitter ancl close fighting in a hilly arc extending from north-east of Medjez el Bab to south-east of that place. A bloody combat continued yesterday for Longstop Hill, under low-hanging cloud which prevented a full use of Allied air superiority. The British infantry wrested all the west slopes from the Axis troops, but the enemy is grimly holding on to the east * slopes. Both sides are heavily empiuying artillery.

LONGSTOP HILL IMMENSELY FORMIDABLE HEDGEHOG. VALIANT ASSAULT BY WEARY TROOPS. (Received This Day, 1.50 p.m.) LONDON, April 25. “Longstop Hill was one of the most formidable and craftiest hedgehogs military science could devise,” says an Associated Press correspondent with the First Army. "Anti-personnel mines barred the approaches and each step to the 900 foot crest was under the fire of heavy machine-guns and mortars, whose crews were protected by thick concrete-roofed pits, and grottos cut from the limestone ridges. “The assault on the slopes of Longstop Hill began with a gigantic barrage from hundreds of guns concentrated against an area 600 yards deep. An English unit followed within 100 yards of a creeping barrage. The unit has had three days’ rest in more than five months of fighting. It mustered even cooks and drivers for the initial charge. The enemy was only temporarily shaken by the barrage and halted our attack in the minefields. The weary Tommies again attacked a few hours later, but the enemy fire was impenetrable. A fresh Scottish unit took over, supported by heavy tanks which blasted the enemy strongpoints from close range. A second English unit reinforced the Scots and carried the assault to the high ridges. No words can properly pay tribute to the infantry, who refused to quit until they had won. Bitter and confused fighting is going on between Longstop Hill and the Goubellat Gap. The infantry is continuously engaged along the road from Medjez el Bab to Goubellat.”

FIRST ARMY INCHING FORWARD. First Army troops are also inching forward north and south of the road between Tunis and Medjez el Bab, supported by small groups of tanks and mobile artillery. The Americans are maintaining pressure along the Sed Jenane-Mateur Road, in face of main enemy defences based on “green” bald hills which dominate the road 15 miles east of Mateur. French forces, between the Americans and the Mediterranean, are making steady progress. Their compatriots further south, between the First and Eighth Armies, made an important gain by forcing the enemy to withdraw from Jebel Mansour, after steadily increasing pressure for several days. The strongly defended Jebel Mansour is a key strongpoint in the enemy defences south-west of Pont du Fahs. The Eighth Army is holding off a continuous counter-attack while its new positions are being consolidated and reinforcements brought up for the next move. A late message from Algiers says the Luftwaffe is making almost hourly dive-bombing and tank-strafing sorties in the Goubellat Gap sector. In his weekly broadcast from Washington, Mr Elmer Davis, head of the Office of War Information, estimated that the total American casualties in North Africa since the landing up <o date will not exceed 12,000, including 1,500 dead, compared with 30,000 Axis troops killed and wounded and 30,000 taken prisoner.