MARETH LINE POSITIONS

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23884, 1 March 1943, Page 5

MARETH LINE POSITIONS

MOVEMENT BY BTH ARMY (Rec. 9 p.m.) LONDON, Feb. 28. “In the Mareth sector forward elements of the Bth Army have established positions immediately south of the Mareth Line without serious opposition,” said Saturday’s North African communique. Advanced units of the Bth Army arc fighting in the Wadi Zigzau. a rockstrewn precipitous gorge forming part of the main defence system of the Mareth Line.

Reuter's correspondent with the Bth Army, describing the fighting south of the Mareth Line, says; “The positions in this area had to be carried crag by crag and peak by peak, by troops travelling in jeeps armed with light artillery. The capture of the troglodyte village of Chermessa, perched on the central peak, brought the Bth Army’s mountain fighters 12 miles beyond Foum Tatahouin.” The Algiers correspondent of the British United Press says it is known that part of the German 10th Panzer Division is moving south to bolster the Mareth Lino defences.

The Bth Army’s patrols have found the Mareth Line to be largely manned by Italians, who are without support from panzer forces. The Berlin radio declared on Friday that heavy Bth Army groupings in the Medcnin and Foum Tatahouin areas suggested an intention to attack in the very near future. It added that the British had brought up tanks, heavy guns, and a major concentration of motorised forces of all descriptions. Royal Air Force fighter formations had moved to the front and lively patrol activity was proceeding along the whole front.

General Leclerc, the Fighting French commander, is now south of the Shott el Jerid, which protects the Mareth Line. The Shott el Jerid is a shallow saltpan impassable by motorised transport. General Leclerc's forces and also General Giraud’s camel corps may thrust across the Shott cl Jerid, across which General Leclerc’s camel patrols are already terrorising the Italians. They cross the Shott el Jerid by night and attack at dawn with knives and bayonets.

MEDITERRANEAN TARGETS RAIDS ON SICILY AND SARDINIA (Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, Feb. 27. ‘“On Thursday night our bombers attacked the docks at Bizerte,” says Saturday’s North African communique. "Yesterday targets at Cagliari, in Sardinia. were bombed. Hits were seen on docks, railway yards, industrial buildings, and airfields. "North of Sicily an enemy convoy was attacked by our bombers. One large supply ship was set on fire. “Three enemy aircraft were destroyed yesterday and two others were destroyed on February 25. Five of our aircraft are missing from these operations and from those over Tunisia.”

A communique from Royal Air Force headquarters in Malta says: “On Thursday our fighter-bombers attacked factories in Sicily with bombs and cannonfire. Intruder aircraft were over Sicily during the night, and a Junkers 88 was destroyed. A torpedo-bomber destroyed a Junkers 52 in the Sicilian narrows.”

A Middle East air communique says: “In hostile air attacks on Tripoli on the night of February 25 our night fighters destroyed a Junkers 88. Antiaircraft fire accounted for another. No damage and no casualties are reported.’’

An earlier Middle East communique said that heavy American bombers attacked Naples harbour on Wednesday night, bombs bursting at the base of a mole and to the north of the harbour. Cotrone was also bombed. All the aircraft returned from these and other operations. AMALGAMATION OF AIR FORCES U.S. COMMANDER IN NORTH AFRICA (Rice. 8 p.m.) LONDON, Feb. 27. , The Algiers correspondent of the Associated Press says that the Royal Air Force and the United States Air Force in the North African theatre have been amalgamated as the Northwest African Air Forces under the commqpd of Major-General Carl Spaatz, American air commander in the European theatre, with LieutenantGeneral J. H. Doolittle as Chief of the Bomber Command, and Air ViceMarshal Sir Arthur Coningham as Chief of Ground Support.