EIGHTH ARMY BRIDGEHEAD IN DOUBT

Grey River Argus, 27 March 1943, Page 5

EIGHTH ARMY BRIDGEHEAD IN DOUBT

[Aust. & N.Z. Cable Assn.] LONDON, March 25. The Allied North African communique on Thursday said: On Wednesday on the Eighth Army front the battle for the Mareth Line continued with heavy artillery lire. The unofficial news from Tunisia is most confusing. Accord ng to the Algiers radio tne latest report from the Mareth front says the Bth Army has been able to hold a bridgehead in the enemy fortified line. Algiers radio said: 'lhe most violent battle ever staged in Africa is progressing in the southern sector. S.nce Tuesday Marshal Kummers forces with successive waves of tanks and infantry have endeavoured to neutralise the salient the Eighth Army established in the Mareth Line, but the Eighth Army has maintained a bridgehead in the fortified enemy positions. Algiers radio later announced that violent battles are progressing in the southern sector of the Mareth Area adding that further Axis counter-at-tacks re-took the positions lost, on the previous days. Mr Churchill’s statement to t.n« House of Commons, in which he said that the German counter-attack had retaken most of the defence positions they lost, apparently reported the situation ruling on Tuesday evening, and it was based on information later than that contained in Wednesday’s Allied communique. A British United Press correspondent at Allied Headquarters, says:— Official silence has been clamped down on news of operations in the Mareth Line, where savage fighting continues. It was officially announced that nothing could be written about the Eighth Army except, bald facts l.sted in communiques. The correspondents were told that they should not speculate or draw conclusions or presume what the enemy might be attempting.” The Columbia Broadcasting System’s Algiers correspondent says:— The German counter-attack in the Mareth coastal area seems to have been stopped, but most of General Montgomery’s first day gains appear to have been wiped out. The enemy’s fierce artillery fire and heavy tank onslaught certainly made it impossible for us to exploit the bridgehead in the enemy’s fortified zone. Despite the ban on correspondents’ dispatches from Tunisia, the Algiers radio on Wednesday night stated:— The Eighth Army continues to hold a firm and important bridgehead in the enemy’s fortified Mareth zone. The salient which Geneiial Mantgomeryi has won remains in our hands. The fighting is still fierce in the southern sectors of Tunisia. Rommeil, feeling that events are shaping seriously tor him, is setting all he has in motion in an effort to deny Montgomery the initiative. Despite his losses and true tq the German method Kommel is throwing in wave after wave of troops in an attempt to prevent the Eighth Army crossing the Mareth Line s defences. Masses of Germans ate falling under heavy fire from British tanks and artillery.

ADVANCE FORCE UNDERGOES BIG ORDEAL NEW ATTACKS BY THE ALLIES On Southern and South-Western Sectors