DASH TOWARD TUNIS

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 190, 8 May 1943, Page 5

DASH TOWARD TUNIS

Enormous Blow By Ist Army ALLIES STRIKE NEAR BIZERTA

Defences Breached

(By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.)

LONDON, May 7.

The British First Army and the French and American forces in the north yesterday launched a great double offensive against Tunis and Bizerta.

Making a terrific attack on a narrow front yesterday morning the First Army smashed, completely through the main Axis defences and captured the key fortress town of Massicault, I 6 miles from Tunis, in an irresistible dash. The Axis retreat to Tunis had begun. Since then the First Army has continued to advance across the Plain of Tunis, driving on toward Tunis against enemy forces reeling from the massed weight of our land and air assaults. The Americans are closing in on Ferryville, and in a powerful offensive have captured heights in the last range of hills defending Bizerta north of Lake Achkel. Both the British and American offensives were launched before dawn.-

British infantry, guns and planes began the all-out attempt to blast a way along the Mejerda Valley to Tunis at dawn yesterday. During the hours before dawn the British grouped more men and guns on a - two-mile front than had ever been concentrated on such an area in North Africa, or possibly anywhere else during the war. The British push began from a point 8 miles from Mejez el Bab, from which Tunis is 27 miles distant. The capture of Jebel Bou Aoukaz was the preliminary move. Hundreds of guns laid down a hellish barrage before the British infantry moved forward. Allied airmen, approximately half British and half American, played a major part. During a moonless night Allied bombers flew over the enemy lines at frequent intervals and got fully into their stride at dawn, and in the three hours after dawn the airmen made more than 1000 sorties. At almost exact 15-minute intervals strong formations flew ahead of the infantry, bombing and machine-gunning every, spot where enemy movement was'detected. The First Army attacked along the main highway to Tunis with the support of 400 guns. Front Completely Broken. A correspondent says that von Arnim had made- Massicault' the pivot of his whole defensive system, and it is difficult to see where the Germans can now stand to defend Tunis. , “The enemy’s northern front in’ Tunisia has ibeen completely broken,” says Benter’s correspondent at the Allied headquarters. “Only five miles now separates the British thrusting up the Mejerda Valley from the Americans who have stormed forward south-east of Mateur. The enemy’s main defence system has been smashed, and it is doubtful whether the Axis will be able to make a further stand before reaching the suburbs of Tunis. "The British assault was so overwhelming that it even overran enemy units which were not engaged in frontline duties. The Germans had no answer to the sustained heaviness of the British land and air attack. At one time hundreds of our' bombers and fighterbombers were opeimting over a zone a little more than 12®fniles deep.

American Push. “Soon after midday yesterday the British vanguard was attacking the outer defences of Massicault, and early in the afternoon the first British armour, guns, lorries and infantry were moving through the streets of the town. The British spearhead was then 16 miles from Tunis. “Farther north, where the German front had also crumpled, the Americans were pushing steadily forward toward Bizerta.” The Americans driving toward Ferryville from Mateur were also assisted by one of the heaviest air attacks the Allies have yet staged. They captured Jebel Aehkel, which forms a magnificent observation post overlooking the whole of the Bizerta plain, and guns sited oh Jebel Aehkel are reported., to be hammering Ferryville'. ■ The American armoured column which has been thrusting south-east of Mateur encountered fierce resistance in mountain positions, but successfully stormed heights.

Algiers radio said last night that the Americans were only half a mile from Ferryville, the big port and arsenal on the shores of Lake Bizerta. The announcement said that Bizerta itself was being shelled. Troops of the Eighth Army made a local advance in the Bou Ficha sector. Artillery was intensely supporting the infantry operations on the Eighth Army front. The capture of 'Massicault takes the fighting into more open country in which our armoured units can operate more freely—this time, it would seem, without much fear of air attack. One correspondent quotes an R.A.F. officer who followed the advancing infantry as saying that the road from Mateur to Bizerta is littered with the wrecks of Axis tanks and armoured cars ''and lined with enemy graves. The British United Press correspondent with the Allied air forces says that Bizerta’s. docks, wharves and shipyards are burning as the Allies bomb and shell this important Axis supply port and naval base. Tunis is also being heavily bombed, and clouds of white smoke are pouring over both ports.