FOR EVERY HEIGHT

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 63, Issue 170, 30 April 1943, Page 3

FOR EVERY HEIGHT

CLOSELY-LOCKED TUSSLES.

FOCAL POINTS IN TUNISIA. SHREWDLY PLACED POSITIONS. (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright.) (Rec. 11.35 a.m.) LONDON, April 29. The battle for Tunisia has settled down into closely-locked swaying tussles for every height on the perimeter of the Italian-German defence box. The two focal points are Medjerda Valley, where the Ist Army's left wing is attempting td smash toward Tebourba, and the Goubellat Gap, where the Ist Army’s right wing is attempting to isolate Pont du Fahs. The Allied forces face a series of shrewdly-sited fortified hill positions. The enemy is uniformly following the tactics, of exacting the highest possible toll before the Allies win the outer slope' and then unloosing* a storm of shell-fire and mortar-fire before the Allied troops are able to consolidate, and immediately launching counterattacks, often with strong tank sup--1 port. ,

The “Daily Express” correspondent at Algiers states: “We have reached the hard core of the enemy’s resistance. It is. a very hard core. We are still closing in, but the cost of our advances are greater and the distances smaller.”

The fate of the 730-feet Jebel Bon Aoukaz is still in doubt after one of the bloodiest battles for Tunisia, which is still raging after two days. Bou Aoukaz is 13 miles north-east of Medjez el Bab, and nine miles west of Tebourba. Bou Aoukaz, which (rears up from the east bank of the Medjorda River, gives a view of practically the whole road to Tebourba and guards the entrance to the Tunisian Plain.

The imminent fall of Pont du Fahs, 'which is outflanked on either side, is suggested in the latest dispatches from Tunisia.

Next Move by the French

■■ The Algiei’s radio said that the British from Goubellat were within •three miles, of the main Pont du FahsTunis road while French forces had occupied the western slopes of Zaghouan mountains and hold all the heights dominating Pont du Fahs. The next move of the French troops operating in the immediate outskirts of the town will be its catpure. The radio added that the Bth Army, attacking Zaghouan from the south, has miles northeastward the coast in the last few newed attacks, the chief opposition was not from artillery fire, which it has been getting for the last week, but from mines and demolitions. The latest news of the great tank battle for the Goubellat Gap, which began on Friday morning, is contained . in a dispatch from Reuter’s correspondent with the Ist Army. He says: “A British tank force, equipped with Sherman tanks, destroyed 19 tanks, hi the last 48 hours, although they have been dive-bombed, heavily shelled and * shot up by enemy tank-busting planes. Its first job was the capture of the hill north of Zourzia salt lake. As it advanced General von Arnim’s panzers ' rolled downhill to meet it. Guns roared in a fierce exchange which echoed C across the plain as armoured units clashed. The Shermans knocked out seven enemy tanks and the remainder withdrew. The British reached the top of the hill and held on. until relieved next morning.

Enemy Tanks Destroyed

After a- short interval they readvanc-

ed, whereupon five panzers moved out from the wadi. The Shermans immediately ooened up and destroyed all five

of the enemy within less than five minutes at 1000 yards. On the same evening the Shermans spotted another enemy force, of' which seven wore destroyed . ■

While this Avas going on the second British tank force toward the south end of Kourzia engaged a German transport column, the action lasting a few minutes, in which 15 transports and a number of guns and motor-cycles Avere destroyed. Discussing the Allied foothold on t}ie Zaghouan Mountains, the Columbia (American) Broadcasting system’s correspondent at Algiers says: “This is y really important, because it means that we now control the hills dominating the plain of Pont du Falls, .also all the roads north across the plain to Tunis. The Germans are really beginning to

feel the squeeze down there. Zaghouan . is at the northern side of the barrier 'the Bth Army is attacking from the south, so that the Germans in betAveen

are in an unpleasant strategical position. They are starting to thin out.” v. P, enter’s correspondent at Algiers reports that British infantry occupied Sidi Ahmed, 10 miles north-north-east of Medjez cl Bab and north of the Terburba road. 1 The Allies’ outstanding advantage in North Africa is definite superiority in the air, said the United States Societnry of War (Mr H. L. Stimson) at a. press conference at Washington. e added that from March 20 to last Saturday, Allied flyers had destroyed 1064 enemy planes, of Avhicli 859 were combat planes and 205 transports. The Allies lost 270.