Rommel’s Delaying Tactics

Manawatu Times, Volume 68, Issue 57, 9 March 1943, Page 5

Rommel’s Delaying Tactics

AMERICAN VIEW OF AXIS ACTIVITY LONDON, Mar. 7. While the Algiers radio declared (according to earlier messages) that the Eighth Army is complete master of the situation, having repulsed Rommel *s attacks, the British United Press correspondent reports that Rommel’s opening attacks at dawn on Saturday were launched from Tonpana Halluf, on the western end of the Mareth Line front, which is the right flank of the Axis positions. The Algiers radio said that Rommel’s defeat before the Mareth Line was graver than the Kasserine defeat. An American radio commentator reports that Rommel is re-forming for a fresh attack. There Is no doubt at headquarters that the German thrusts were a major attack intended to defeat the Eighth Army. } 4 * The decisive stage of the battle for Africa has begun,** Reuter’s correspondent on the Tunisian front says. 4 'Rommel has thrown in all his men and armour in a desperate attempt to throw General Montgomery off his balance and stave off the British onslaught. Rommel is running a dangerous risk of fatally weakening himself by exposing his forces to such shattering blows as General Montgomery dealt out yesterday.** i It is confirmed in London (says the Official Wireless) that the Allies have I advanced 25 miles from Sbeitla to Sidi Bouzid, which is 12 miles west of . Faid Pass, whence the Germans started their counter-offensive. According to New York radio, the Allied troops have captured Faid Pass itself, which is the gateway to the Central_ Tunisian, plain. The report is not officially confirmed, but earlier North African dispatches suggested that the Germans had retired into the pass. A New York cable states: The real battle for Tunisia will soon begin, according to a report which has reached the French military mission from the French headquarters in Algiers. A critical phase is stated to have ended with Rommel*s failure to exploit his offensive. French developments now depend on General Montgomery’s assault on the Mareth Line, and it is predicted that this will be a signal for the final Allied attack. Old German Campaigners The Official "Wireless states: Rommel sent old campaigners of the panzer forces, along with infantry, into the attack against the Eighth Army, but the move was anticipated, says a correspondent in North Africa. The first attack was launched at 6.45 a.m. on the southern sector of the Mareth area. The second attack launched at 10.30 a.jn. developed on a much larger scale. Rommel appeared to be trying to move northward to higher ground from Matmata. Again, this move was anticipated and successfully met by the British. Our positions held everywhere. The fighting is becoming the biggest battle since that at El Alamein. Rommel’s losses are already very heavy. The Germans seemed to put the whole of their weight into the southern attack, but in the northern sector the fighing is light. A wireless commentator, describing the battle, says that the Eighth Army, having reached that point in its advance when it turned from going eastward to get north, is standing to fight some miles north-west of the town of Medenine. Six or seven miles ahead 5s the Mareth Line. The British are on a fairly narrow plain with hills to the left, widening away southward, and behind it the coast curving round to the cast. In the first light yesterday, Rommel’s tanks and armoured infantry appeared out of the hills on the Eighth Array’s left, moving northward, with the object of swinging to the attack. An hour later German and Italian panzer forces came from the Mareth Dine proper and made a direct frontal attack. By 10.30 it was clear that the enemy meant serious business. Our guns met the attack and in addition to the 21 tanks already reported lost, by this time he has certainly lost more. The Eighth Army has perfected the i technique of dealing with knocke # d out ■ tanks. Sappers blow them up so that j the enemy cannot recover and use them I again.

Many of Rommel’s troops have certainly covered several hundred miles in the last week or two. They are, of course, very tough battle-trained 1 troops in a good position geographically, and they may feel that they have 1

no immediate cause to worry about their rear. A correspondent in North Africa, reporting the sinking of fonr ships and the disabling of two others in a convoy off Bizerta, says this brings the United States Army Air Force toll of Axis shipping in the Mediterranean since November 8 last to 33 sunk, 15 severely damaged, and 40 damaged.