IMMINENT THREAT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 April 1943, Page 3

IMMINENT THREAT

TO ROAD JUNCTION OF PONT DU FAHS FRENCH & BRITISH TROOPS CLOSING IN. ENEMY DEFENCE NEAR SNAPPING POINT. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) LONDON, April 27. In a . particularly fierce battle French and British troops are closing in on Pont du Fahs, the small but strategically vital town on the small plain at the foot of the mountains in the central sector of the Tunisian battlefront.

Pont du Fahs is the main road junction by which the enemy supplies his troops facing the Eighth Army and the French 19th Corps. French troops had entered the plain by last night and were 3| miles from the town. On the French left flank the First Army is only a few miles north-west of the town.

Reuter’s Algiers correspondent late last night defined the position of the Tunisian front, stating that first, General von Arnim was shortening his lines in the extreme south-west; and, secondly, the German lines in the southern and central sectors had been bi’K ken into jagged salients, and our infantry and armoured vehicles were consolidating their advances. He added that the fighting has reached a grim stage, with the whole of the dispositions of the Axis armies reaching a snapping point. BOMBERS & TANKS. The Associated Press correspondent with the First Army says that Allied aircraft are swooping down on the enemy at the rate of a bomber a minute. “Our tanks are going great guns, too,” the correspondent says. “Swinging ponderously through a gap in a minefield north of El Jourzie yesterday, heavily-gunned Churchills destroyed or disabled 20 out of 44 panzers which attempted to prevent them from fanning out. This column had knocked out nine tanks on Friday and 11 on Saturday. Reuter’s correspondent with the First Army says that the Germans, who are estimated to have started the tank battle at the southern end of the Goubellat plain with 60 or 70 tanks —a large proportion of their total force in Tunisia—are now reduced to 24 or possibly less in fighting order. The confident British tank crews feel that they are on the verge of a resounding victory. The Algiers correspondent of “The Times” says that the battles which are now being fought are altogether different from any previously seen in this campaign. The intensity of the air fighting alone raises the offensive to a major scale. On land the ferocity of attack and defence makes demands on the courage and morale of the men, who for the first time are seeing casualties on either side in grim numbers. “However critical may be the enemy’s position, the end of the bloody struggle is not yet in sight,” this correspondent adds. RELENTLESS AIR ATTACKS. Fortified gun positions of the enemy on the mountain-sides have been bombed by medium and light bombers, says the “Daily Telegraph’s” Algiers correspondent. The attacks are so relentless and accurate that our ground forces sent back several messages of thanks and appreciation. The Luftwaffe belatedly tried to defend their ground forces, but the Allied airmen have retained the superiority, and Spitfires and Warhawks swept deep into the Axis perimeter.

Anzac Day was celebrated in practical fashion in a northern sector, when