AXIS CLAIMS

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23914, 5 April 1943, Page 5

AXIS CLAIMS

REPORTED JUNCTION OF FORCES HEAVY FIGHTING EXPECTED (Rec. 9 p.m.) LONDON, April 3. In announcing that Rommel’s forces had joined von Arnim’s, the German Official News Agency claimed that the Axis had “successfully retreated” to central Tunisia and that British attempts to encircle the Afrika Korps had failed. The news agency stated that after Marshal Rommel’s tank army reached the new shortened defences it united with General von Arnim’s troops, thus achieving the original aim of a wellconsidered plan. The news agency added that General Montgomery and the British and Americans repeatedly tried to prevent the union, but Marshal Rommel, anticipating the Allies’ joint operations, disrupted General Montgomery’s preparations against the Mareth Line by a vigorous attack and, under cover of strong rearguards, reached the area between El Hamma and Gabes with all his stores and arms. Commenting on a German statement that Marshal Rommel had linked up with General von Arnim, the “Daily Express” believes that the shortened Axis line will run from Sousse through Pont du Fahs to Bizerte. “While the leaders of the retreat may have reached this line, only a small part of the Afrika Korps proper is there. Marshal Rommel is still defending the western flank, to a point near Gabes.” Reuter’s military correspondent says: “The Berlin announcement that Marshal Rommel has joined up with General von Arnim is sheer propaganda bluff. The German commanders’ forces formed a continuous line when Marshal Rommel retired behind the Mareth Line. There is no indication that Marshal Rommel has withdrawn the bulk of his forces any great distance north of the Wadi Akarit, where the enemy is in such strength as to require an attack on a considerable scale to dislodge him. The enemy has also taken precautions to protect his left flank with forces which are able to put up stiff resistance against the American columns aiming for the coast and ready to intercept his main body when he begins his final withdrawal northwards.” Gripped in a Vice Gripped tightly in the steadily closing Allied vice, Marshal Rommel and General von Arnim’s armies are at present on the defensive along a 200mile front from Sedjenane to Oudref. Considerable speculation has arisen regarding a German military spokesman’s assertion that General Montgomery would not be allowed to make contact with the main Nazi forces. The spokesman said: “The Allies in South Tunisia, in spite of the terrific pressure, have not yet come fq contact with Marshal Rommel’s main-forces, nor will they succeed in doing so.” Some quarters interpret this as meaning that Marshal Rommel does not intend to fight before reaching North Tunisia or that his forces will withdraw from Africa. Whether or not it indicates an attempt at an Axis "Dunkirk,” which, apparently, is the only alternative to another “Stalingrad* v correspondents emphasise that it is most unlikely that preparations for such a move will escape the Allied air reconnaissance. The possibility of an attempted evacuation is so obvious that with aerial superiority, which the Allies possess over a wide area of the Mediterranean and surrounding coasts, any effort to take off enormous numbers of troops by ship would undoubtedly be observed and would give the Allied air forces the chance for which they are certainly praying. The Allies may aim to destroy the German flank in the neighbourhood of El Guetar before pushing northwards but °n Friday night it was authoritativdy denied at Allied Headquarters that the Americans at El Guetar had linked up with the Bth Army. On the

contrary, it is believed that the forces are about 40 miles apart. Dispatches from Allied headquarters state that the first stage of the campaign, which aims at destroying Marshal Rommel’s forces, has not ended, and that the present pause was to be expected after the Bth Army’s nine days of bitter, bloody fighting, and the Allied troops’ long advance over difficult country. Admission of Allied Superiority A spokesman in Berlin emphasised that the Allied superiority in men and material was due to their better opportunities for bringing up reinforcements and supplies because the British had repaired ports which the Germans wrecked during the retreat from Egypt, thus making possible the use of large scale sea transport instead of relying on road transport. This confession is interesting, states the British United Press, inasmuch as it suggests that neither the Luftwaffe nor the Axis naval forces are able to interfere very much with British sea communications which is not usually the sort of propaganda the Germans circulate. At his press conference in Washington, the United States Secretary of War (Mr H. L. Stimson) said Marshal Rommel had apparently retained the bulk of his forces intact, and there was a strong chance that he would effect a union with General von Arnim, which would give the Axis a strong army in good defensive positions. There would probably be a great deal of heavy fighting before the final phase.