GERMANS HIT BACK

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 102, 1 May 1943, Page 5

GERMANS HIT BACK

FLUCTUATING FORTUNES

LONDON, April 30. While the Allied forces in Tunisia arc keeping up their pressure agaiiiHt the enemy, the Germans have been hitting hack hard in the mountains at several points. All reports now tell of ceaseless attack and counter-attack. A correspondent remarks that the battle combines the difficulties of the Western Front in the last war witli those of India's North-west Frontier. This kind of fighting means losses in men and equipment that are even more serious for the enemy than for us. The enemy is doing all he can to reinforce his armies. A message from the Allied headquarters says that the Axis, taking advantage of the moonless nights, has been running supplies across the Sicilian Narrows to Tunis. The "Daily Telegraph's" . correspondent with the First Army reports that "Peter's Corner," also known as St. Median, which is a cross-roads eight miles east of Medjez el Bab, is now in our hands. When the country round "Peter's Corner" is finally under our control there will be little to prevent us from fanning out into the plain before Tunis. The Exchange Telegraph Agency's correspondent with the First Army reports that the British on Tuesday took Sidl Salem, which is immediately south-west of Peter's Corner, and also took Sidi AbduLlah nearby. German infantry retook both places on Tuesday night. On Wednesday we again took Sidi Salem, but the Germans still held Sidi Abdullah. v ,4 ■ , l. *• ■> The German Henschel "tank-busting plane is using the same tactics as our Hurricane tank-buster on the Goubel-

lat Plain, says the "Daily Express" correspondent with the Eighth Army. The Henschels are slow, but they are increasing their attacks on our heavy tanks in the foothills and on the dusty roads. The Axis, which is employing flamethrowing tanks, had not used them since General Wavell's campaign, says the correspondent. The tanks were a farce in 1940—tiny-tracked vehicles, about five feet high and seating two men, with a formidable nozzle like a two-pounder gun stuck out from the front. The Italian crews then panicked and turned on the flame too soon, and as the flame shot out only 30 or 40 yards our artillery had no difficulty in demolishing the tanks one by one. But in Tunisia, where there is much cover, it is a different story.