SPLIT IN TWO

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 63, Issue 180, 12 May 1943, Page 3

SPLIT IN TWO

ENEMY ON CAPE BON PENINSULA FIRST ARMY CROSSES BASE. \ AIR FORCE STILL HAMMERING. (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright.) LONDON, May 11. . The last Axis forces under arms in Tunisia have been split in two. The Cape Bon peninsula has now been sealed off, and the enemy troops on it are entirely cut off both by land and sea. This is revealed to-day in the Allied communique, which says that the Ist Army yesterday made a complete break-through in the Hamrnan Lif area and advanced right across the base of the peninsula, capturing Soliman, Grombalia, and Menzel bon Zalfa. By the evening they had reached the outskirts of Hammamet, on the eastern side of the peninsula.

The Ist Army in this advance took 5000 prisoners, including troops of the Hermann Goering Division. Prisoners are still coming in.

Allied aircraft attacked the Axis forces, on the peninsula from dawn to dusk, causing heavy casualties. Large tires were seen on the peninsula last night. Parties of the enemy trying to escape by sea are still being mopped up.

There is no further news of the Axis infantry force cut off south of the peninsula.

The blitz against bases and airfields in Sicily continues. Yesterday Flying Fortresses attacked three targets, and medium bombers attacked the airfield on Pantellaria for the third night running.

DRIVE ACROSS CAPE BON NECK.

FIFTEEN MILES TO BE COVERED. LONDON, May 11. Allied forces in Tunisia have captured Grombalia, about half-way down the neck of the Cape Bon peninsula, and Soliman, a few miles inside the peninsula proper on the north coast. In a strip of territory about 20 miles square, just south of the peninsula, enemy infantry are putting up the last stages of resistance. To the east is the sea, to the south the Bth Army, and to the west French forces. To the north British armoured forces are rapidly cutting them off from the enemy forces in the peninsula.

The armoured column driving down the neck of the peninsula from the north is within 15 miles of Hammamet, on the south coast of the peninsula. Correspondents say that the enemy troops in the peninsula are in a hopeless position. They are completely blockaded.

The capture of Grombalia and Soliman was announced to-day to the House of Commons by the DeputyPrime Minister (Mr C. R. Atlee). Mr Attlee said that the Ist Army covered the last 30 miles to Tunis in 36 hours. Its casualties numbered 1200, which considering the scale of the attack and the tenacity of the defence, had not been heavy.

Enemy resistance, west of the Cape Bon line stiffened considerably on Sunday. There was fierce fighting in the Hammam Lif area, before our troops pushed on.

The Algiers radio last night announced that the remnants of the crack Hermann Goering Division had surrendered. These forces were earlier stated to be holding a position near Hammam Lif, and another east of Creteville.

A correspondent at Allied Headquarters says that British tanks at the noithern entrance to the peninsula have been held up at a wadi which has been constantly shelled by the Germans. French troops have captured Zaghouan. This news came after the issue of a French communique which said that French units, after by-passing the Zaghouan heights, continued to advance and were mopping up pockets of enemy resistance. By Sunday night all the western part of the mountain chain was in French hands. French aircraft, the communique added, successfully attacked enemy vessels off Cape Bon. A French battalion which has been fighting in the Bon Arada area marched into Tunis on Sunday morning, says an agency correspondent. It was treated as if it were a conqueiing

army. In the Cape Bon peninsula and the Hammamet-Zaghouan-Soliman triangle there may still be about 100,000 Axis troops, and reports make it. clear that they are fighting desperately.