PRISON CAGE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21092, 12 May 1943, Page 3

PRISON CAGE

PENINSULA AREA RINGED “BY NAVY “DUNKIRK” IMPOSSIBLE UP TO 100,000 TRAPPED (By Telegraph—Press Assn.— Copyright.) LONDON, May 10. The Cape Bon Peninsula is rapidly becoming a huge prisoners-of-war cage ringed by the Royal Navy, the Algiers radio said to-night. Axis prisoners were coming in at the rate of 1000 an hour. It is authoritatively stated in London that there are about 140,000 Axis troops still to be accounted for, and if the number of prisoners found is fewer than expected it will indicate that the enemy losses have been imuch higher than was expected. It may well be that killed and wounded total 100,000, leaving 40,000 to be dealt with. The enemy resistance west of the Cape Bon line has stiffened considerably in the past 24 hours. There has been fierce fighting in the Hammam Lif area. Our troops are now past Hammam Lif. The crack Herman Goering division holds a position here and also east of Creteville. British tank columns are pushing forward to crack the German fine and reach the plains in the Soliman area and thence across the mouth of the peninsula to Hammalet, thus completely sealing off the mouth from the Axis forces now west of the line. The Algiers radio iate to-night announced that the remnants of (he crack Herman Goering Division have surrendered. Triple Allied Thrust

The Algiers radio had earlier announced that enemy resistance ceased on the southern sector to-day. ah earlier Algiers communique announced that resistance had ceased on the United States section of the from in north-eastern Tunisia. Prior tu the announcement, enemy resistance had ceased on the southern sector.

The British United Press correspondent with the British armies stated that there was a triple thrust against the Axis in the area approaching Cape Bon. Our forces were moving down from Tunis aiming to cut off the Germans still west of the line across the mouth of the peninsula. The Eighth Army was exerting pressure from the south, while the French were in action from Zaghouan northeastwards. It was estimated that the enemy west of the mouth of the peninsula includes infantry units of the 10th and 15th Panzer Divisions, units of the 21st Panzer Division, and the 90th and 164th Light Infantry, besides some Italian units on the coast area. “If the Germans had any doubt of the impossibility of evacuating from Cape Bon Peninsula, the intensity of the Allied air and sea bombardment must have removed it in the last 36 hours,” says an agency correspondent in North Africa. In the *p en i nsu^a and the Hammamet-Zaghouan-Soliman triangle there may still be about 100,000 Axis troops and reports make it clear that they are fighting desperately. Failure of Evacuation Describing the Germans’ first attempt at an evacuation, the National Broadcasting Corporation’s Algiers correspondent said that they gathered a large number of small craft and barges at the little harbour of Porto I anna. When they were embarking our bombers pounded them. Simultaneously British armour from the south and American tanks from the north arrived at Porto Farina. The Germans sent out an emissary and surrendered. About 5000 were taken prisoners, mostly Germans. Up and down the snores of the Cape Bon Peninsula small’ craft crammed with Axis troops attempted to get away. They did not get far. Scores of our fighters and bombers blasted the boats, prevented other boats from landing on the beaches, and shot all fighter opposition from the sky. British pilots saw the Germans in boats wave white flags. They saw dozens of vessels blazing and sinking. They saw. survivors clinging to rafts. It was not a wholesale evacuation; it was the beginning of final surrender.

The navy and air force have put up a screen of fire around Cape Bon. The enemy cannot get anything in and he will not get much out, apart from a handful who may sneak out by plane at night. The way things are going now there will be no Dunkirk. A" North African French communique, quoted in an agency report, states that French units by-passing Zaghouan heights continued to advance and are mopping up pockets of enemy resistance. By Sunday night all the western part of the mountain chain was in French hands. The French Air Force successfully attacked enemy vessels off Cape Bon. A French battalion which had been fighting in the Bou Arada area marched into Tunis yesterday morning, says an agency correspondent. He adds that it was treated like a conquering army. Another Tunis message says that the stream of prisoners along the roads caused frequent traffic hold-ups. The Berlin radio stated that the Italian, General Messe, was left in command in Tunisia. It is recalled that he criticised General Rommel for leaving the Italians behind at Alamein. His criticism tvas published in Italy.