ROUND PONT DU FAHS.

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

ROUND PONT DU FAHS.

ALLIED THREAT TO TOWN.

APPROACHING THE HIGHWAY. LONDON, April 29. The main news from Tunisia is about the Allied threat to the. little town of Pont du Fahs, about 30 miles south-west of Tunis, at the angle between the Ist Army and Sth Armyfronts. A French communique reports that troops of the French 19th Corps have crossed the highway linking Pont du Fahs with Jeoenina and the western slopes of Jebel Zaghouan. The left flank of the Sth Army is threatening Jebel Zaghouan from the south. The Ist Army is within four miles of the Pont du Fahs-Tunis railway. If it can cut the highway the Axis forces will be able to escape only by a minor road ahd the narrow-gauge railway linking Tunis with Pont tlu Fahs and Zaghouan. The French communique said that General Giraud’s troops continued their advance in the Pont du Fahs sector in the face of a. violent enemybarrage. To the south-east French troops were'well beyond the main road from Pont du Fahs to the coast, and, advancing on a front several miles wide, they gained a foothold in the mountains east of Pont du Fahs. Among the prisoners taken was the Chaplain-General of the Italian forces in North Africa.

General Montgomery has returned to his headquarters in Tunisia after his visit to Cairo.