ADVANCE FROM BUERAT

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23849, 19 January 1943, Page 5

ADVANCE FROM BUERAT

Bth Army’s Progress

WIDE FLANKING ; MOVEMENT A (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (R(k 11 p.m.) LONDON, Jan. 18. ftp Tripolitania the British Bth Army in its new offensive has advanced about 70 miles from Buerat in a wide flanking movement. The infantry is pushing on and consolidating behind forces. The British advance continues to the north and west. Enemy air resistance is negligible, and the Allied air vforces are plastering the Sedada area, and also the enemy’s rear.

The Bth Army has been forced to swing further inland than ever before, and faces a terrain split with wadis, making broken ground more suitable for defence than for attack, but once past the Jebel region the remaining 150 miles to Tripoli is easy country for an advancing force. It is considered in Cairo that Marshal Rommel is capable of carrying out only delaying actions. His forces consist only of remnants of the German 90th and 164 th Divisions, the 15th and 21st Armoured Divisions, and the remnants of the Italian Ariete, Littorio, and Trieste Divisions.

Enemy positions were overcome in the attack. Considerable opposition was encountered, but'the whole area was quickly cleared, and the enemy withdrew. Some Axis tanks and troops were captured. Reuter’s correspondent with the Bth Army states that the Afrika Korps and its Italian satellites, under cover of darkness, on Friday night pulled out of the Wadi Zemzem position without waiting for General Montgomery to strike. They were just in time, because the Bth Army began its third great push at dawn on Friday and by evening it was bumping against the main Wadi Zemzem positions. By Saturday morning Marshal Rommel had gone, leaving’ mines, booby traps, and the usual obstacles. The Axis forces offered a certain amount of resistance, shelling from strong-points covering the Wadi Zemzem and Gheddahia positions. The Bth Army pursued the enemy as far as Sedada, 60 miles west of Buerat.

across that downward Gheddahia-Bu Ngem position, both in the south and the centre. “Our forces met with considerable opposition, but by nightfall on Friday we had done a very great deal towards bending out the inverted L—bending it upwards into a straight line. In fact, on our left .flank we were right up against the enemy positions in the Wadi Zemzem. By Saturday morning the whole of the Wadi Zemzem area was clear of the enemy. Then we crossed his positions on the GheddahiaBuerat road as well, and all-day yesterday the Bth Army went steadily and resolutely forward over broken country, in spite of enemy resistance, shelling, and minefields along this entire front.

“We have taken prisoners and clearly the Bth Army armour has been in action against what is left of Marshal Rommel’s 15th and 21st panzer divisions. That is all to the good, because what we want now is less to conquer territory than to destroy Marshal Rommel’s strength—which, if the worst happens, he would like to withdraw intact into northern Tunisia to use in

The correspondent of the British United Press states that the new defence line northwards of Sedada

swings inland and westwards, and it is obviously designed to prevent the Bth Army pocketing the Axis forces in the Misurata area.

a last desperate struggle to maintain an enemy bridgehead in Africa.” Fighter-bombers were the only Allied offensive aircraft over the battle area on Saturday, for the reason that no pilots could be found for light bombers, states a Cairo message. Fighter-bombers gave excellent support to the Bth Army’s advance, and did considerable damage. Enemy activity was negligible. Among widespread and intense operations during the previous night were those of Allied long-range fighters over Tunisia, causing great damage and consternation among enemy convoys. Maltabased aeroplanes continued to range far and wide in a variety of offensive operations day and night. A Cairo communique states: ‘During the night of January 15 the Tripoli area was bombed and fires were started. Successful intruder operations were carried out against enemy vehicles in Tunisia and western Tripolitania, Tripoli was again bombed on January 16„ and fighter-bombers raided Lampedusa airfields, in addition to targets in southern Sicily. One enemy aircraft was destroyed off Lampedusa. One Allied aircraft is missing from these operations.”

The Bth Army now seems to be almost out of the desert. There is much fertile country and a considerable population ahead. There appear three possible courses for the enemy. The least likely is a withdrawal northwards to Misurata; the second is a withdrawal north-west towards Sliten, and the third is a similar withdrawal westwards towards Beni Ulid. The Tarhuna area, about 40 miles south-east of Tripoli, contains some kind of natural defences offering a chance of an enemy stand. Uninterrupted Push

How the Libyan, offensive had up to Saturday night constituted a 36 hours uninterrupted push was stated by a correspondent broadcasting from Cairo to-day. Describing the forward movement, he said: "The enemy positions had been roughly in the shape of an inverted L, running from behind Buerat astride the road to Gheddahia about 35 miles inland and westward—and then south to Bu Ngem. On Friday morning our first move was to cut