CLEAN-UP IN TUNISIA

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 May 1943, Page 5

CLEAN-UP IN TUNISIA

AXIS AERIAL ATTACK

SEVERAL PLANES DESTROYED LONDON, May 16.

The only operations officially reported from North Africa are normal air patrols yesterday, and an attack by Wellingtons on Palermo, in Sicily, the previous night. Last night, when Axis aircraft raided the Algerian poit of Bone, they met a violent anti-aircraft barrage, and several were destroyed 1 The work of clearing up the battlefield in Tunisia continues. Prisoners are being sent to the west, and unused war material, both that of the Allies and the enemy, is being put m 01 What would have happened had the Axis attempted a Dunkirk from North Africa was described ■ by . a naval commentator to-night. Admnal Sir Andrew Cunningham, he said, had instructed units to be m readiness to attack on receipt of the code signal “Operation retribution. This, said the naval officer, was the perfect C °The V ?atest list of Royal Air Force awards includes that of the Distinguished Flying Cross to Squadron Leader J. J. Lynch, who shot down the thousandth enemy aeroplane destroyed over Malta. He has taken pat t in many sweeps over Sicily. Squadron Leader Lynch is an American citizen. He obtained a commission m the ■Royal Aii- Force in 1941. In Tunis conditions are gradually rr ettiD& back to normal. The food situ,'ation has improved and the oread l ' a A°correspondent says that .food has been very scarce in Tunis. Coupons allowed each person I,lb. of bread a day but no milk or meat was avail able for the ordinary population. Everything had gone to trie Axis troops. There is no electricity yet, but one cinema is open and the Axis forces did not have time to destroy the water system. A curfew operates from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. Tunis is still a ci tv of exultation.

AERIAL OPERATIONS

RUGBY, May 17. , A North African communique states: “Last night, the seaplane base of Lido Di Ro mu wus cittucked oy Wellingtons. Bursts were seen among parked aircraft. On Saturday'' T r apani was attacked. Large explos ions were observed. Patrols were carried out during which two enemy an - craft were shot down. ’ A Middle East air communique stated: “Yesterday in daylight, R.A.F. long-range fighters attacked an enemy schooner on the east coast ot Greece The vessel was abandoned, listing badly. A smaller enemy ship was also damaged. One ol our mrerart is missing.”

AXIS “GIGANTIC MUDDLE’

LONDON, May 16

“The’truth about the Axis collapse in Tunisia is out at last," says the Tunis correspondent of the “Daily Mail." “It was one gigantic muddle. What precipitated the muddle was the unbelievable bursts of speed by the British down the Mejerda valley to Tunis and also through Hammam Ln: to the Cap Bon peninsula. The Axis forces were split in twain. One captured general paid a tribute to the British armoured forces. He said: T did not conceive that an armoured division could move so fast.’ “After the Hammam Li.f breakthrough, the whole Axis position automatically collapsed. Most of the Axis troops in the Cap Bon peninsula were not fighting troops. The entire Axis system of communications broke down. It was not a coherent army any more. It simply fell apart. The only forces which got away in an organised manner were Luftwaffe personnel. It all adds up to a muddle on a gigantic scale, and if it can happen. n/Tunisia it can happen elsewhere. Marshal Messe has arrived in Britain bv plane .accompanied by other hieh-ranking Italian prisoners. The filial list of Generals captured in Tunisia includes the names of 16 Germans and 10 Italians. The names of six more Generals not previouslv.announced are the German Major-Gen-erals Koenhy and Radrnger, the Ital’an General Belletti. and Divisional Generals Orlandi. Berrade. and Celich.

NAVY'S CAPTURE

(Recd. 1.45 p.m.) LONDON, May 17. ■ It is announced in Algiers that Bri■tish naval units occupied Zemba Island, ten miles from Cap Bon peninsula, and captured 199 Germans.

WOMEN IN AXIS PLANES

NEW YORK, May 17

The use of girl gunners in Nazi bombers is claimed by some American soldiers who were wounded in Tunisia. They say that girls arc small enough to fit in the tail positions of German bombers. One American soldier stated that one of the girl gunners shot down near his position was a pretty blonde.

FRENCH TRIALS

LONDON, May 16

Giraud’s administration is forming special Courts to try local persons accused of collaborating with the Germans and Italians in Tunisia, says the “Mail’s” Algiers correspondent. Their property,will be frozen to prevent the owners selling or removing it. This property in certain cases may be used to reimburse the people whose belongings were looted by the enemy. Arabs proved guilty of looting will be severely punished. The Germans paid the Arabs fantastically high prices for foodstuffs and other goods, using French banknotes looted' from France. The Arabs could be seen gambling in the streets, with wads of hundred franc notes. Political suspects detained in Algeria include only French persons and 808 foreigners, of whom 553 are Italians. The remainder are enemy collaborators arrested after the Allies landed in North Africa. Details of the German and Italian reign of terror are being filled in as French and Jews emerge from their biding places, says the “Daily Mail’s ’ Tunis correspondent. A Beethoven concert was arranged by the Germans on May 1- Storm Troopers arrived and arrested men in the audience, and took them away in trucks. The Germans were getting some of that 8000 workers wanted for fortifying the city. They also fined the Jews the equivalent of £114.000 after the Allies first bombed Tunis because the Jews “instigated the capitalist war.”