EVACUATION BY AIR

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 May 1943, Page 3

EVACUATION BY AIR

OF AXIS FORCES IN TUNISIA SAID TO BE IN EARLY CONTEMPLATION. MAIN BIZERTA AIRFIELD REPORTED UNDER FIRE. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 9.50 a.m.) LONDON, May 5. “Sidi Ahmed, Bizerta’s big airfield, k about six miles from the city, is reported to be under the fire of our longrange guns, which only in the last two d3*s were shelling Mateur,” says the National Broadcasting Corporation’s Algiers correspondent. “We have already taken many Axis airfields in the last part of the campaign, which so far has netted an estimated total of 5000 prisoners. The bag will grow as the entire front comes within the scope of action.” According to Swiss journalists, wellinformed Berlin military circles believe the latest developments in Tunisia have forced the Axis forces to prepare for an immediate evacuation. A large number of transport planes are stated to be concentrated near Marsala. It is also reported that the Afrika Korps has been ordered to defend to the utmost, by delaying action, in the zone around Bou Ficha and Zaghouan, while the evacuation will be organised from the eastern tip of Tunisia.