GERMAN PLANS

Grey River Argus, 11 January 1943, Page 1

GERMAN PLANS

For Major Campaign LONDON, Jan. 8. “The Germans are massing for the coming battle for Tunisia,” states the Algiers correspondent of the “Daily Express”. “Every available transport aeroplane and glider is being* pressed into service by the Axis to rush reinforcements from Italy to Tunisia. “The Germans are not going to fight a delaying action and then clear out of North Africa. They are going to defend Tunisia as a major front, and right now they are reinforcing with every modern weapon in their armoury. “Allied infantry—Tommies, Doughboys, and Poilus—are within fortymiles of their two great goals, Tunis and Bizerta. Both sides are bogged down in deep, clinging, slimy impassable mud. For the air forces it must be the same. The forward landing grounds are simply open paddocks lying on the Poors of valleys ■ which are swamped overnight by the rains. But the Allies definitely lead in the sky struggle.” ENEMY HOLDS BIG AREA. LONDON, January 8. The “Daily Mail,” in a leading article states: “We are. unable to understand , why the British public should not be more fully acquainted 'with the position of the Axis and Allied forces in Tunisia. The recent general impression was that the enemy held only the tip ot Tunisia and the towns and airfields at Tunis and Bizerta, but correspondents’ statements prove that the Axis forces occupy-a substantial slice of Tunisia running from north to south and in some places seventy i miles inland. | “Nothing more has been heard of * the American forces advancing on Gabes in an attempt to cut the coast

road linking the Gentian armies in Tunisia and Tripolitania. We are still bombing Gabes.

“It can be deduced that the Axis occupies the entire coast between Bizerta and Tripoli and that it is using the vital coast road for com- j munication between the armies of Nehring and Rommel. This explains the suggestion that. Rommel is receiving the equipment necessary for the replacement of that lost at El Alamem. It is necessary to utter a warning against the possible re-. suits of allowin' l (only the most, meagre trickle of information to flow from this battlefront. The British and American Governments will have only themselves to. blame if expectations are not realised and a storm bursts around their heads.” AXIS REINFORCEMENTS. ARRIVING DAILY. (Rec. 7.0.) LONDON, Jan. 9. The Axis Army in Tunisia is estimated at twenty-five thousand men. j Axis reinforcements ar e reported to ' be arriving there by air at the rate of five hundred daily. Allied Air Force UNDER AMERICAN COMMAND, (Rec. 9.10.) LONDON, Jan. 9. It was announced that General Spaatz (U.S.A. Air Commander in Europe) has been appointed Com-nianfler-in-Chief of the new Allied Air Force in Tunisia, consisting of the British Eastern Air Command, the United States Twelfth Air Force, and also som e French units. General Spaatz remains Commander-in-Chief of the United States Air Forces in the European theatre AMERICAN AIR RAIDS. AT BIZERTA AND GABES. (Rec. 7.10., ~LONDON, Jan. 9. American Flying Fortresses heavily and successfully attacked Bizerta and Ferryville,, scoring direct, hits on docks, shipping and oil tanks, and starting large fires. United States ’planes also attacked Gabes, and oil stores, railroads and bridges along the eastern sector, and Airwan airfi/ld. Eight enemy ’planes were shot, flown for the loss of five American ’planes. The Royal Air Force destroyed one enemy ’plane for the loss of one, U.S. AIR RAID ON TUNIS. (Rc. 6.30.) LONDON, Jan. 10. The United States Air Headquarters in North Africa, in a communique issued from Cairo, states: "Bombardment aircraft of the Ninth United States A,ir Force attacked shippng and harbour installations at Tunis at daylight on Friday. Results were not observed. This was due to cloud conditions. One M.E. 109 was shot down. All of our ’planes returned.’’ RAID ON TUNIS AND SFAX. (Rec. 7.0.) LONDON, Jan. 9. A British Middle East communique ! stated: Targets near Tunis and Sfax were attacked with good results by our aircraft on' Thursday night. The same night an enemy aircraft was shot down by Intruder aircraft over .Comiso, in Sicily. All oui 1 ’planes returned. . U.S. SOLDIERS. FLOWN TO NORTH AFRICA 1N HUNDREDS.

(Rec. 7.30.) NEW YORK, Jan. 9. The New York “Times’s” Philadelphia correspondent says: The greatest Allied troop-carrying air armada of the war ferried many thousands of American soldiers fourteen hundred miles on a non-stop flight from England to North Africa. The flight was simultaneous with a sea-borne invasion on November 7. Colonel Shelmire, assistant commander of the American Army Air Force, made this disclosure. He added that the transports carried an average of twenty men, fullv equipped, and flew one hundred and fifty miles an hour. The ’planes were of no ; particular new design, but were simply commercial transports fitted for this special purpose.

French Forces REPULSE GERMANS. ENEMY LOSSES CONSIDERABLE. (Rec. 6.30.) RUGBY, Jan. 9. The French High Command in Tunisia, issued a communique, which was broadcast by the Morocco radio on Friday night, stating: "To the south of Pont*du Fahs, our patrols have been engaged in some fighting. Further to the west, the enemy made a surprise attack, which was supported by tanks. The attack was repulsed, and considerable losses in men and material were inflicted on the enemy. There is nothing to report, from the rest of our front.”

FIGHTING FRENCH SUCCESS. (Rec. 8.0.) RUGBY, Jan. 9. The Fighting French Headquarters announce the receipt of the following communique from General Le Clerc’s Headquarters: “Defeat of enemy in Fezzan is becoming a rout. Our advanced elements occupied De Brache. Other enemy outposts are encircled by our troops. Operations are continuing.”

FRENCH SUCCESS LONDON', Jan. 8. The correspondent of the British United Press reports that the French Camel Corps, composed of fierce desert warriors, after a violent battle, yesterday ca’ptured Tanout Mailer, fourteen miles from Tairet in the south of Tunisia, and wiped out 250 of the 400 Italians comprising the garrison. These tough desert fighters led by French officers, are dreaded by the Axis garrisons in the desert, on whom they swoop .silently, neither asking''nor giving quarter. It has been announced by the French authorities that German parchutists dropped at St. Arnaud, 40 miles' from Coats and 85 miles southwest of Phillippeville, in Algeria were accompanied by one Arab in civilian clothes. All were rounded up and arrested, thanks to the help of Arabs in the district. One Arab parachutist was court-martialled and shot.

Garrison Captured BY THE FRENCH, OTHER SUCCESSES SCORED. (Rec. 9.10.) LONDON, Jan. 9. A Communique from General Le

Clerc’s Headquarters says: A French. Camel Corps detachment, under Captain Sarazac,- captured the enemy garrison of Gatrun. They took one hundred and seventy-seven prisoners, and much booty. The detachment covered a great distance at a record speed, and swept the enemy off their feet. Our Bretagne Squadron razea hangars and workshops and destroyed an ammunition dump at Sebka. Our Camel Corps has also occupied Tachiunet, one hundred miles northwest of Serdeles.

General Giraud’s Aim

1 IBERATION OF FRANCE. (Rec. 9.10.) LONDON, Jan. 10. General Giraud made a speech, at Dakar before leaving there to inspect military installations elsewhere. He said: “I have only one policy. It is that of the union of all Frenchmen against the enemy. My onlv ambition is' to liberate France. Thereafter, France will be free to choose whatever Government she likes.” He added that h e had sworn' soon ten re-enter Metz at the head ofi his troops. AIR LOSSES IN NORTH AFRICA. (Rec. 6.30.) RUGBY, Jan 9 Figures of Allied and enemy air losses for the first two months of the North African campaign have been issued by Allied Headquarters. They are: Aircraft destroyed: Enerpy, 344; Allied. 147 FRENCH FACTIONS. BRITISH PRESS ATTACKS. LONL ON, Jan. 8. The “Dailv Express stated: The arrived in Algiers of the Comte de Faris, 'the 35-year-old pretender to the • French Throne, has complicated the already extremely unsettled situation in North Africa. The Comte, before the war, was exiled from French soil and he lived in Spanish Morocco. He was at Rabat when the Allies entered North Africa. Leaflets distributed in Algiers state that the Comte proposed a coup oetat which involved the assassination of Admiral Darlan. The- leaflets state that the coup was intended to place the Comte at the head of French North Africa, where he would declarea union of the French Empire, and solidarity with the United Nations, thereby presenting London and Washington with a fait accompli. This at any rate, is the theory of ardent Republicans who are carrying on a private. fued with the Monarchists. “Statesman and Nation,” a London weekly, says: “Dying unwept, Admiral ' Darlan left in French North Africa a political cesspool, whose stench not merely infects the cause of the Western Allies, but threatens, unless there is plain speaking a better understanding by poisoning Ang-lo-American relations. Mistakenly cautious, the American censorship in Algiers 'emasculates.. correspondent’s comments about the set up on which the British, no less than the American Army depends. There is latitude shown to the present regime in North Africa. It remains free t to retain in high office M. Chatel. the notorious sly pro-German GovernerGeneral of Algeria; to maintain in appointments unreliable Petamisi. officers who form the majority of the senior ranks serving under General Juin, the commander-in-chief, who at best is described as an avowed Vichy supporter; to leave unsuppressed Fascist part-military organisations which infest Vichyist North Africa and to turn a blind eye to the activit’es of Axis agents. General De Gaulle and General Giroud have both issued statements in favour of a union of French forces, and if it had been left to them they would probablv have achieved it, but General Giraud, who is a soldier and not a politician, is in a political posit;on as High Commissioner, ana his adv’sers are the anti-thesis of everything for which the Fighting French stand.

French officials in North Africa are a mixture of Vichy supporters. Royalists. Doriotists, and Croix du Feu supporters who at. no time were in favour of General De Gaulle’s stand tor democratic principles, the laws or the Republic, and the immediate formation of a provisional government for the whole Empire as a pre-condition to the fusion of the military forces. CONVOY AT GIBRALTAR LONDON, Jan. 8. The Berlin radio declares that a mammoth convoy is assembling at Gibraltar. It includes more than fittv cargo vessels and ten tankers with an escort of iliree battleships, two aircraft-carriers, two cruisers, twenty-two destroyers and sixteen gunbohts.