Navy Blockades Cape Bon Peninsula

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 110, 11 May 1943, Page 3

Navy Blockades Cape Bon Peninsula

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Prisoners Coming !n At Rate Of 1000 Every Hour

(New Zealand Press Association.-—Copyright.—Rec. 12.30 p.m.) LONDON, May 10. Cape Bon Peninsula, In North-east Tunisia, is rapidly becoming a huge war prisoners' cage ringed by the Royal Navy. Algiers radio said to-night that Axis prisoners were coming in at the rate of 1000 every.hour. The statement was authoritatively made in London that there are about 140,000 Axis troops still to be accounted for, and if the number of prisoners is found to be fewer than was anticipated it will indicate that the enemy losses have been much higher than was exp*ected. It may well be that the killed and wounded total 100,000, leaving 40,000 to be dealt with. Algiers radio to-night announced that enemy resistance ceased in the southern sector to-day. An earlier communique from Algiers announced that resistance had ceased on the United States section of the front in North-eastern Tunisia. Prior to this announcement enemy resistance had ceased in the southern sector. The British United Press correspondent with the British armies stated that a triple thrust was being made against the Axis troops in the area approaching Cape Bon. Our forces were moving down from Tunis, aiming to cut off the Germans still west of the line across the mouth of the peninsula. The British Eighth Army was exerting pressure from the south while the French were in action from Zaghouan towards the north-east. It is estimated' that the enemy forces west of the mouth of the peninsula include infantry units of the 10th and 15 th Panzer Divisions, units of the 21st Panzer Division and of the 90th and 164 th Light Infantry Divisions, besides some Italian units on the coast area. Stiffer Resistance In Past Twenty-four Hours Enemy resistance west of the Cape Bon line stiffened con-; siderably during the past 24 hours, when there was fierce fighting in the Hammam-Lif area. Our troops are now past HammamLif. The crack Herman Goering Division held the position here, also east of Creteville, but Algiers radio announced to-night that the remnants of this division had surrendered.

British tank columns are pushing forward to crack the German line and reach the plains in the Soliman area and thence proceed across the mouth of the peninsula to Hammamet, thus completely sealing off the mouth from the Axis troops now west of the line.

Describing the Germans* first attempt at evacution, the National Broadcasting Corporation correspondent at Algiers says they gathered a large number of small craft and barges at the little harbour of Porto Farina. When they were embarking our bombers pounded them, and simultaneously British armoured units from the south and American tanks from the north arrived at Porto Farina. The Germans sent out an emissary to surrender, and about 5000 were taken prisoner, mostly Germans.

Up and 'down the shores" of Cape Bon Peninsula small craft crammed with Axis troops attempted to get away. They did not get far. Scores of our fighters and bombers blasted their boats, prevented other boats from landing on the beaches, and shot all fighter opposition from the sky.

British pilots saw Germans in boats wave white flags. They saw dozens of vessels blazing and sinking. They saw survivors clinging to rafts. It was not wholesale evacuation; it was the beginning of final surrender.

The Royal Navy Air Force has put up a screen of fire around Cape Bon. The enemy cannot get anything in and he will not get much out apart from a handful who may sneak out by plane at night. The way events are going now suggests that there will be nothing to correspond with the position at Dunkirk.