TUNISIAN CLEARANCE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 May 1943, Page 3

TUNISIAN CLEARANCE

ALLIES DRIVING INTO CAPE BON PENINSULA On Heels of Enemy Remnants PRISONERS COMING IN AT RATE OF THOUSAND AN HOUR EIGHTH ARMY AND FRENCH MOPPING UP IN SOUTH ■'* LONDON, May 10. From the north, west and south Allied land forces in Tunisia are moving steadily inwards across the entrance to the Cape Bon Peninsula. They are mopping up pocket after pocket of enemy resistance as they go. The report by Algiers radio yesterday of the capture oi Hammamet, on the east coast, was in error and was later corrected by a report of the fall of Hamman Lif, south-east oi Tunis. One message states that the Cape Bon Peninsula is closed and blockaded. According to another report, however, a big concentration of Axis troops, half-way between Tunis and Hammamet was still fighting back hard this morning m an effort to cover other troops in the Cape Bon Peninsula who might be in a position to evacuate. This Axis concentration is getting its biggest hammering from the north, where Allied armoured forces are steadily driving a wedge between it and the enemy forces in the peninsula. Allied forces yesterday were reported to have reached a point 15 miles from Hammamet, which marks the southern extremity of the entrance to the peninsula. If the Allied troops can succeed in pushing on to Hammamet they will seal off the peninsula and cut off the Axis forces fighting north and south of that line. British tanks are repored to have breached the German positions. . In the south-west French troops.are pushing forward east of Zaghouan and on their right flank the British Eighth Army, in a local attack, reached all their objectives. Most of the German armour was sent to the north some time ago and infantry remained in the south. It is this infantry that General Montgomery’s men and the French are dealing with now. Prisoners are still coming in in large numbers. The Algiers radio says they are coming in at the rate of 1000 an hour. Round Bizerta, where all organised fighting ended yesterday morning, 25,000 Axis prisoners were taken. NAVAL AND AIR FORCE BUSY All round the coast ships of the British Navy are busy day and night looking for enemy ships and have sent several to the bottom. , _ . . , , t Allied aircraft are intensely busy not only over Tunisia but £ver Sicily and Southern Italy as well. Among the latest targets IS Messina. A statement about the Tunisian victory will probably be made when the House of Commons meets again. BRITISH DESTROYER LOST The Admiralty announce the loss of the destroyer Pakenha,m, which has been taking part in the latest attacks on Axis shipping off the Italian and North African coasts.