IN TUNISIA

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 32, 8 February 1943, Page 3

IN TUNISIA

Allies Consolidate Position Near Djebel Mansour AIR ACTIVITY RESTRICTED Rec.' 1.30 p.m. LONDON, Feb. 7. "Our troops have consolidated their position in the vicinity of Djebel Mansour. Air activity generally has been limited by bad weather. One of our aircraft was lost but the pilot is safe." This information is contained in the latest communique from North Africa. The communique issued from Cairo to-day states that yesterday our patrol activity continued in all sectors. Low clouds and rainstorms hampered our operations in the Tripoli and Tunis areas. A harbour was bombed during Friday night, and there were successful attacks on Palermo, in Sicily, yesterday. From the above operations one of our aircraft did not return. The Berlin radio said 282 persons were killed and 696 fcijured in the Royal Air Force raids on Sicily. A Cairo correspondent says that in central Tunisia there has been liveliness, and the enemy has been increasing his air activity over the French positions. It is thought that General Montgomery's forces are building up their strength for the next big push. An Allied fighter-bomber squadron has attacked enemy blockhouses, and a commentator says it looks as if we have begun to strike at the Mareth Line.

The Germans yesterday, with the support of mortars and heavy machine-guns, launched a series of heavy counter-attacks against the British parachutists holding hill 648 at Jebel Mansour, says the Algiers correspondent of the Exchange Telegraph. At the same time, they are shelling the road along which all our supplies had been taken.

This made the position untenable, and we decided to evacuate the positions captured on Wednesday. The parachutists took up new positions to the east further down the hill. A military spokesman says the operation is only on a small-scale, and both sides are sparring for positions. The German news agency says that Lieutenant-General Wolfgang Fischer, commander of a panzer division, was killed in action in Tunisia on Monday last.