ADVANCE IN SOUTH

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21065, 9 April 1943, Page 3

ADVANCE IN SOUTH

FIRST ARMY MOVE MONTGOMERY'S FEAT SURPRISE FOR ROMMEL 1 (By Telegraph—Press Assn— Copyright.) (11.30 a.m.) LONDON, April 8. The Eighth Army has now reached ( within 10 miles of La Sikhira, the first important town on the Tunisian c coast north of the Wadi Akarit, put- a ting them about -0 miles north of a Gabes, reports the Algiers radio. The E Americans north of Maknassi, pushing P towards the coastal plain of Stax, a have advanced to the entrance of f< Maizil Pass. h According to the Vichy radio, the First Army has launched an attack, j believed to be on a large scale, in the Med.iez el Bab area. Berlin says n that’ General Anderson has an enor- Q mous superiority of men and material which he will try to exploit to the . maximum. An all-out Allied oftensive along the whole Tunisian front & is expected. q Contact between the left flank of c the Eighth Army and the Second 2* American Corps occurred south of i< Djebel Chemsi, about two miles north p of the Gafsa-Gabes road and some 15 n miles east of El Guettar. As contact was made, heavy forces of Spitfires c; escorted American Mitchells bombing p enemy transports fleeing northwards t; from the area under a heavy smoke- g screen. The latest front-line dispatches state that the Eighth Army’s position continues to be satisfactory, yesterday’s battlefield being cleaned up and a more prisoners taken, tl roads prevent the use of heavy vehicles and often confine transport n to mules. , R "To the south, the French moved up , north of Shott el Jerid. These a troops were composed of those coming from Algeria and those who a crossed the Sahara from Chad. Early yesterday, heavy air attacks , on the Sfax-Sousse road imposed j delay and inflicted much damage on e enemy transport and troops’ move- g mgnts, while bombers also raided n troops moving from the El Guettar area. Over 20 tanks were attacked by fighter-bombers near Cokhira. ls Intended to Hold Lines a> The pattern of events since the 11 Eighth Army attacked on Tuesday morning is further clarified by the • latest despatches. When, by midday, ° the British troops had gained all their “ objectives they proceeded to organise the new positions and reinforce the “ bridgehead. It is clear that General a Itommel intended to hold the Akarit position. The enemy’s vigorous a counter-attacks all failed. . . The Fourth Indian Division again 0 used its renowned tactics of creeping On the enemy positions and attacking by surprise as it did in the memorable storming of Keren two years ago, During the night, the enemy began to pull out northward, tenaciously followed by our troops. At the same time the enemy armour in the El Guettar sector began to move east and north-east. . The Second American Corps at once f took advantage of this and pushed 1 cast until it made contact with the Eighth Army patrols 20 or 30 miles east of El Guettar. The enemy, with ( the Americans on their heels, were compelled to fight rearguard engage- 1: ments on a series of hills affording s good defensive positions. There was j. a series of hard-fought engagements , in exacting country, where inferior [; ’ Thunderous Barrage t The British United Press correspondent with the Eighth Army, t describing General Montgomery s frontal attack against General . Rommel, says: “Sweeping across the . • plain in front of the Gabes gap under ; cover of a violent artillery barrage. • the Eighth Army on Tuesday burst into the thickest Axis defences at the Wadi Akarit just as the sun rose over £ the Mediterranean. A thunderous barrage of shells had crashed at 4.15 a.m. into the heavy, recently-dug ■ German defences along the Wadi ; Akarit, and several thousand of ’■ General Montgomery’s best troop? , marched in battle formation across the plain. Bayonets gleamed amid flashes from the guns and shells ‘ bursting amid the thick network of German machine-gun nests, and within the first four hours of the day several preliminary objectives were 1 seized. , “The barrage continued to rock the desert as our guns plastered the Axis ) , positions in a small area where the > Wadi Akarit forks near the coastal 1 road. Our troops advanced into a l thick nest of machine-guns. Our , infantry crossed the 100yds wide wads into the midst of the Axis positions. 1 The wadi at this point 'has a gently 1 sloping bank on the south, with a j fairly .steep bank on the north. Tanks 1 were able to cross easily, but-wheeled 1 vehicles could not. Therefore, eng?- 1 l neers were in the forefront of the c battle, clearing minefields and build- 1 ing a suitable slope on the northern j bank so that supply lorries'were able < to cross.’’ Historic Link-Up j The Daily Express’ correspondent . says: “Two ‘hills formed part of , General Rommel’s defence line— < Roumana, 500 ft. high, and Tebegafat- E nassa, 800 ft. Who held these hills held the wadi. They were ours after two hours of bitter fighting. We had hardly taken them When there was a counter-attack. The enemy knew that, with the ‘Desert Rats’ on che hills their foothold in the wadi would J crumble, but a storm of fire met the Germans and there were soon only isolated groups lying flat on the ground or sprinting from one bit of cover to another. “Soon, sweaty, sand-baked British troops were north of the wadi and only five miles from the shore. They had made a bridgehead through which ppssed the units charged with the task of combing out the enemy in the „ wadi positions near the sea, whither j Otir tanks began to move. Besides prisoners, we captured much equip- „ ment, some of which our troops will be able to use.” b Reuter’s correspondent at Allied y Headquarters, referring to the meet.- a Ing of the Eighth Army’s left flan’ with the Americans from El Guet tdr, says that the historic link-u' opened a new phase in the Nortl African campaign. The Allies artnow on the threshold of a successfu' completion of their first great ofTen sive action. For the first time they have a direct land supply route Iron-, the Atlantic to the Red Sea. TinEighth Army has now shortened it' line of communication by several thousand miles. Although the ser < route through the Mediterranean j not yet completely clear, the land a route along the southern shores f freed for Allied use. The Eight.] E Army has achieved a strategic gai j) as great as an immediate military h success. -1 ■ 1 T C' n