MOMENTARY LULL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 May 1943, Page 4

MOMENTARY LULL

ON PARTS OF BATTLEFRONT IN TUNISIA •— j ENEMY’S STALINGRAD TACTICS. BIG SACRIFICES ENTAILED. (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.5 p.m.) LONDON, May 2. Except in the Medjez el Bab area, General von Arnim appears to have called off the ferocious Axis counter-attacks against General Alexander's steel spearheads which, yard after hard-won yard, continue shortening the Tunisian arc. Reports from Algiers indicate that a comparative lull has developed in the last 24 hours, in which ficihting has mostly been concentrated on the American front, in the north. American and French troops are grimly attacking Axis positions at Jebel Hazamat, north-west of Mateur, between the sea and the Medjerda River. The Allies have not yet wholly captured this hill, where they are encountering fierce resistance from scattered, well-placed defence pockets. The Algiers radio, reporting the capture by the Americans of another hill position, said they are now twelve miles from Mateur. Reuter's correspondent at Allied headquarters says the American Second Corps, after the capture of Djebel Tarhent, seized Hill 476, eight miles north of Medjez el Bab. The British, operating in the Medjez el Bab area, spent yesterday in improving their positions, without much interference from the Germans, who are resting after four days of extensive counterattacks. Today, however, the British First Army beat off yet another heavy counter-attack in the Medjez el Bab sector. The Algiers radio stated that the British repelled the Axis forces after heavy hand-to-hand fighting. The French African Corps continues the- mopping up of the northern Tunisian coastal sector and has now passed Mersa Douiba, 20 miles west of The British United Press Algiers correspondent says the Eighth Army again holds every inch the Axis forces retook in the past few days. General Montgomery has now advanced 51 miles north of Enfidaville and also ten rnilfes north-east, along the coast. The attack which the Eighth Army repulsed north of Enfidaville mentioned in an Algiers communique, was in hills where Axis troops infiltrated into ground they had lost. The Eighth Army cleared out the infiltration and now has complete control of the area. AIR BLOCKADE TIGHTENED. The Allied air forces are continually tightening their air blockade, throwing more and more planes into the task of cutting off the enemy’s communications with Italy. Correspondents at the front say the Germans are fighting in the Stalingrad manner. They are apparently prepared to make big sacrifices in men and material. The “Sunday Times” military writer says reinforcements are still reaching the Axis forces in Tunisia, but the German counter-attacks are contributing to their own exhaustion. General Giraud, in a speech in Algiers, declared: "The Tunisian battle will be finished this month. I believe the war against Germany will be finished in 1944.” General Giraud paid a glowing tribute to the French Army’s work in North Africa. He pointed out that though they were then insufficiently equipped, they stood firm- at a time when the Italians and Germans had landed 100,000 men in Tunisia. Outlining post-war aims, General Giraud indicated that a measure of social reform in France would replace the outmoded capitalistic system with a “state of participation” between all classes in the nation. France, he said, would endeavour to achieve a system of minimum wages and all-round improvement of social conditions inside a framework characterised by a complete absence of dictatorship principles. General Giraud, drawing a pre-war comparison, pointed out that the Germans in 1937 were producing a hundred tanks a month compared with France's four.