ITALIANS ABANDONED

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 77, 1 April 1943, Page 5

ITALIANS ABANDONED

SIX DIVISIONS MAY BE TRAPPED

LONDON, March 31. The "Daily Telegraph's" correspondent at the Allied headquarters asserts that Rommel again took away transport from the Italians, who constitute the majority of the Axis troops inside the triangle at EI Hamma, Matmata, and Shott el Jerid. _' . The Italians are now cut off in a hopeless position, and many are unable to catch up with Rommel's retreating columns. The Italians probably have not tried very hard, preferring to stay behind and surrender.

Tho Germans followed the same practice when they were defeated at El Alamein. The military correspondent of the "Daily Express" considers that Rommel's retreat must gain speed, because it began too late, and should have been started immediately it became plain that General Montgomery had shifted the weight of his attack for the outflanking move. It is presumed that six Italian divisions were left behind to fend for themselves. A. C. Sedgwick, the "New York Times" correspondent with the Eighth Army, says: "There were two ways of winning the Mareth battle—a frontal assault and an outflanking movement. Both were tried, but the former was abandoned when it was found that a treriiendous price in life and material was being exacted.' "The frontal assault made gjood progress considering the opposition, and there is no doubt that the troops, when they were ordered to withdraw, could have gone on, but it would have meant days, of most bitter fighting, in which the greater part of those participating would have filled graves."