TUNISIAN OPERATIONS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXII, Issue 301, 19 November 1942, Page 5

TUNISIAN OPERATIONS

BIZERTA BOMBED LONDON, Nov. 18. r A new development in the French North 'Africa campaign is reported by the Morocco radio, which says that an Allied column is moving towards Tunisia from the region of Lake Chad, the French Colony in Equatorial Africa, and the first to declare its adherence to the de Gaulle movement.

In Tunisia French troops are fighting a withdrawing notion as they move westward to join the Allied forces, states Reuter’s correspondent in North Africa. Another correspondent says that some French forces have joined the Allies already in Tunisia. Flying Fortresses raided the naval base of Bizerta on Monday night, scoring hits on the docks and ammunition dumps.

The opinion is expressed in competent quarters in London that never in this war or the last lias such a volume of shipping passed through such a concentration of U-boats as existed in an area from well west of . Gibraltar to Bizerta and Sardinia during the landings in. North-West Africa, says the Official Wireless. It is believed from recent reports that there must have been thirty ■ XJ-boats in that area during the passage of the convoy, and as they were quickly reinforced it is possible that as many as 50 were concentrated. In tho face of such a concentration the Allied losses were remarkably few, and except for one ship they had all done their job and landed their troops and stores before any were damaged.