RINGED BY NAVY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 May 1943, Page 4

RINGED BY NAVY

CAPE BON BECOMING HUGE PRISONERS’ CAGE ESTIMATE OF AXIS NUMBERS. PROBABLE LOSSES IN KILLED & WOUNDED. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.50 a.m.) LONDON, May 10. The Cape Bon Peninsula is rapidly becoming a huge war prisoners’ cage, ringed by the Royal Navy. It is authoritatively stated in London that there are about 140,000 Axis troops still to be accounted for. If the number of prisoners found is fewer than was expected it will indicate that enemy losses have been much higher than was supposed. It may well be that the enemy killed and wounded total 100,000, leaving 40,000 to be dealt with. The Algiers radio tonight announced that enemy resistance ceased in the southern sector today. Earlier an Algiers communiquqe announced that resistance had ceased in the United States section of the front, in North-Eastern Tunisia. To the announcement that enemy resistance had ceased in the southern sector, a British United Press correspondent with the British armies stated that there was a triple thrust against the Axis in the area approaching Cape Bon. Our forces were moving down from Tunis, aiming to cut off the Germans still west of a line aci-oss the mouth of the peninsula. The Eighth Army was exerting pressure from the south, while the French were in action from Zaghouan north-eastwards. It is estimated that the enemy west of the mouth of the peninsula include infantry, units of the 10th and 15th panzer divisions and of the 19th and 164th light infantry divisions, besides some Italian units in the coast area.

NO DUNKIRK ENEMY EVACUATION ATTEMPT. SMASHED BY ALLIED FORCES. (Received This Day. 12.30 p.m.) LONDON, May 10. Enemy resistance west of the Cape Bon line has stiffened considerably in the past 24 hours. There has been fierce fighting on the Hammam Lif area. Our troops are now past Hammam Lif. The crack Herman Goering Division holds a position here and also east of Creteville. British tank columns are pushing forward to crack the German line and reach the plains to the Soliman area, and thence across the mouth of the peninsula to Hammamet, thus completely sealing off the mouth from the Axis forces now west of the line.

Describing the Germans’ first _ attempt at evacuation, the National Broadcasting Corporation’s Algier’s correspondent says they gathered a large number of small craft and barges at the little harbour of Porto Farina. When they were embarking our bombers pounded them. Simultaneously British armour from the south and American tanks from the north arrived

at Port. Farina. The Germans sent out an emissary and surrendered. About 5,000 were taken prisoner, mostly Germans. Up and down the shores of Cape Bon Peninsula small craft crammed with Axis troops attempted to get away. They did not get far. Scores of our fighters and bombers blasted the boats, prevented other boats from landing on the beaches and shot all fighter opposition from the sky. British pilots saw Germans in boats wave white flags. They saw dozens of vessels blazing and sinking. They saw survivors clinging to rafts. !t was not a wholesale evacuation. It was the beginning of the final surrender. The Navy and Air Force have put up a screen of fire around Cape Bon. The enemy cannot get anything in and he will not get much out, apart from a handful, who may sneak out by plane | at night. The way things are going now there will be no Dunkirk, I

Describing the surrender of 25,000 Axis troops to the Americans, the British United Press correspondent says German officers of the staff of General Borowietz, commanding the 15th Panzer Division, approached the American lines with a white flag. The Germans wanted to make terms, but the American commander, Major-General Bradley, insisted on unconditional surrender. Seven German generals have been captured. These include LieutenantGeneral Bueloudius (not Manteufel) who, according to the Berlin radio, is recovering from wounds in Germany. Lieutenant-General Bueloudius was commanding the Manteufel Division. Major-Generals Weber and Borowietz were cut off in the area between Bizerta and Tunis by the Allies’ rapid advance to Tunis. General Weber went to Tunisia in January to command his division. General Borowietz was the fourth general commanding the 15th Panzer Division during its two years in Africa. He replaced General von Kleist last November. General Krause, who is the senior of the generals captured, is an artillery specialist and had been the senior artillery officer in General von Arnim’s panzer army, then in the Tunisia army group. He served in the campaign in Greece. The fifth German general captured was Major-General Bassenge, commander of the Luftwaffe defences in Bizerta.' The sixth was Major-General Nauffe, commander of a Luftwaffe division and the seventh Major-General von Vaerst, commander of the Fifth Panzer Division. The prisoners so far include 3,000 members of the Luftwaffe. Reports from various sources in Tunisia say that both the Luftwaffe and the Reggia Aeronatica (Italian Air Force) have abandoned the battle in Africa. Most of the high commanders and many pilots went off in planes, leaving the ground staffs without air support. The Berlin radio stated that the Italian General Messc had been left in command in Tunisia. It is recalled that he criticised Rommel for leaving the Italians behind at El Alamein.x His criticism was published in Italy.

The Algiers radio tonight announced that the remnants of the crack Herman Goering Division had surrendered. Signor Gayda, writing in the “Giornale DTtalia,” dwelling on the odds against the Italians in the last phase of the Tunisian battle, said the Allied planes reached a total of 5,000 against the Axis “modest number.”