EIGHTH ARMY JOINS UP WITH AMERICANS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 31, 6 February 1943, Page 6

EIGHTH ARMY JOINS UP WITH AMERICANS

ADVANCED TROOPS | j i

Three Axis Tunisian Ports Bombed Out Of Action N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent Rec. 2.30 p.m. LONDON*. Feb. 5. Advanced troops of the Eighth Army have now joined tip with the American forces in Tunisia, says Morocco radio, and the bulk of the Eighth Army is now across the Tunisian frontier. The same source reports that a heavv aerial battering has completely put out of action the ports of Sfax. Susa and Gataes. The Axis forces thus can only use Tunis and Bizerta. American raiders. shot down 25 enemv planes and damaged 26 for the loss of 10 United States in smashing raids against aerodromes in the Gabes area. Flying Fortresses shot down 24 enemv planes in a running fight for a distance of 50 miles. The official spokesman at Algiers announced that American armoured units have withdrawn from Sened railway station after accomplishing the. purpose which they set out to achieve. A Middle East communique says that yesterday our patrol activities continued in the Tunisian border area. Allied fighter-bombers continued attacks on enemy small shipping on the Tunisian coast. Palermo was bombed last night and fires were caused. All our aircraft returned from these operations. Mixed Groups of Deserters "There is now a small but steady stream of deserters, including Poles called up bv the Germans, and Slovenes and Croats called up by the Italians, coming in," says The Times correspondent in Tunisia. 'A large proportion of the Germans fought in Russia, ;and, though more experienced soldiers than ours, they show the strain of a year of continuous fighting.- .'■;-."' "Prisoners" recently captured knew about the fall of Tripoli and the Russian advances. Nearly all the Italians show hatred and rage toward the Germans. These signs," the correspondent adds, "do not amount to a collapse of morale, or anything like it, but it may perhaps be the beginning of the weakening of the enemy's power to continue hitting us hard." , ■ All-out Air Effort Air - Chief - Marshal Sir William Sholto Douglas, • Air Officer Com-mander-in-Chief, Middle, East, said m Cairo to-day that the big job of the moment in North Africa was an allout air effort against Tunis andBizerta with the object of starving out the enemy. The ports of Sfax, Gabes and Susa had been so heavily bombed by Allied aircraft that they were now of little use to the Axis, he added, and nearly all the supplies for the enemy forces.in Tunisia were beingconvoyed to Tunis and Bizerta, sometimes in .daylight with umbrellas of fighter planes. Sir Sholto ~ stated that Mosquito bombers were now operating from Malta and were doing as well over Sicily and Tunisia as they had done over Western Europe.