ENEMY STRIKING BACK

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25214, 1 May 1943, Page 5

ENEMY STRIKING BACK

HARD FIGHTING SLOW ALLIED GAINS LOSSES ON BOTH SIDES (flee. 1.30 a.m.) LONDON, Apl. 30. To-day’s news from Tunisia is ■till of attack and counter-attack, With the Allied forces making alight advances and the Germans Cghting>back hard on several sectors. The Eighth Army yesterday made a local attack and gained its objective, after which a counterattack was beaten off. Bitter fighting continues in the Mejez-el-Bab area, where the enemy is making determined thrusts with tanks and infantry. The Allied air offensive was continued with unabated intensity, and during yesterday 16 enemy aircraft were shot down for the loss of four Allied planes. The Manchester Guardian's correspondent in Tunisia states that the enemy is doing all he can to reinforce his troops, and is taking advantage of the moonless nights to ferry troops across from Sardinia and Sicily.

Retreat from Hill to Hill Violent battles are going on in Medjerda Valley, the Goubellat Gop, and north-east of Pont du Fahs, says Algiers radio: Repeated German counter-attacks have been held everywhere, and the enemy is retreating from one hill to another; British- infantry are clearing all the summits. Artillery and mortars are hammering the enemy’s positions. The Eighth Army has advanced nearly eight miles from Enfidaville. Enemy resistance has been overcome, in spite of violent fighting. Vichy radio says: “ The Allies, by their present tactics of local attacks, hope to breach the Axis lines to Tunis, but the attempts thus far have not been successful. The German defence is extremely vigorous, and the British are the first to admit it. The obstinacy of defence and counter-attack shows how well General von Arnim understands the part he has to play.” Despatches from the front say that the battle for Jebel Bou Aoukaz still rages. This hill is the last before Teburba.

The Associated Press correspondent with the First Army says:—" The first wave of infantry from a famous regiment which stormed the west slopes of the hill was cut to pieces by. heavily protected machine-guns and mortars, which had withstood our shellfire and aerial pattern bombing. Nevertheless, the infantry after dark got within 400 yards of the summit and cleaned up the machine-gun nests. The Germans then counter-attacked, forcing the British to fall back slightly. The tired British troops again made desperate attempts to gain the summit. They failed in this, but held on to the greater part of the day’s gains. This fighting occurred on Tuesday. Heavy Enemy Casualties “On Wednesday German mortar fire forced the withdrawal of the British from exposed positions shortly after dawn. The British attacked again under a smoke barrage and fought their- way to the summit, where 200 Germans were taken prisoner. The Germans then plastered the crest with concentrated mortar and shell fire. They followed this barrage with a counter-attack, in which they employed 500 German infantry and about 30 tanks. They suffered very heavy casualties and the attack failed. “ The Germans, however, quickly came again and again suffered heavily, but forced the British to yield some ground. The British hit back and regained the crest. The night closed with the British firmly holding the hilltop. The pattern of this battle was repeated on several other hills on the First Army front.” The Daily Telegraph’s correspondent with'"the' First Army reports that ‘‘Peter’s Corner,” also known as Saint Median, which consists of crossroads eight miles east of Mejez-el-Bab, is now in our hands.

The Daily Telegraph’s correspondent adds: “ When the country around ‘Peter’s Corner’ is finally under our control there will be little to prevent us from fanning out into the plain before Tunis."

The Exchange Telegraph correspondent with the First Army reports that the British on Tuesday took Sidi Salem, which is immediately south-west of “Peter’s Corner,” and also nearby Sidi Abdullah. German infantry retook both on Tuesday night. On Wednesday we retook Sidi Salem, but the Germans hold Sidi Abdullah. The enemy are using an increased number of guns, and heavy shell fire forced us to withdraw from Sidi Ahmed. 10 miles north-east of Mejez-el-Bab. We went baeje on. Wednesday afternoon, but were again shelled out:. The Americans .on "the Beja-Mateur road have repulsed three strong enemy counterattacks. German “Tank Busters” The German Henschel (“ tankbusting”) plane is using the same tactics as our Hurricane “ tank buster ” on the Goubellat Plain, says the correspondent of the Daily Express with the Eighth Army. The Henschels are slow, but, with the increasing resistance, they are attacking our heavy tanks in the foothills. The Axis has not used flame-throw-ing tanks since Field-marshal Sir Archibald Wavell’s campaign. They were a farce in 1940—tiny-tracked vehicles about five feet high seating two men, and with a formidable nozzle-like two-pounder gun stuck out from the front, but their Italian crews became panicky and turned on the flame too soon. The flame shot out 0n1y.30 or 40 yards, and our artillery had no difficulty in demolishing the tanks one by one. But here, where theTe is much cover, it is a different etory. -

SWAYING BATTLES BITTER ENEMY RESISTANCE STRONG HILL POSITIONS LONDON, Apl. 29. The battle for Tunisia has settled down into closely-locked, swaying tussles for every height on the perimeter of the Italian and German defence box. Two focal points are the Medjerda Valley, where the First Army's left wing is attempting to smash towards Teburba, and the Goubellat Gap, where the First Army’s right wing is attempting to isolate Pont du Fahs. The Allied forces face a series of shrewdly-sited, fortified hill positions. The enemy is uniformly following the tactics of exacting the highest possible toll before the Allies win the outer slope, then unloosing a storm of shell fire and mortar fire before the Allied troops are able to consolidate, and immediately launching counter-attacks, often with strong tank support. Costly Advances

The Daily Exoress correspondent in Algiers states: “We have reached the hard core of the enemy’s resistance, and it is a very hard core. We are still closing in, but the cost of our advances is greater and the distances are smaller. The fate of the 730-foot Jebel Bou Aoukaz is still in doubt after one of Tunisia’s bloodiest battles, which is still raging after two days. Bou Aoukaz is 13 miles north-east of Mejez-el-Bab and nine miles west of Teburba. Bou Aoukaz rears up from the east bank of the Medjerda River and gives a view of practically the whole road to Teburba and guards the entrance to the Tunisian Plain. One hundred per cent, of the troops fighting against the First Army are Germans, according to a correspondent, who believes that they will fight with bitter determination to the last man. The heaviest fighting yesterday occurred at Jebel Bou Aoukaz, where after a hard combat we succeeded in reaching a crest 400 feet from the peak. The enemy launched terrific counter-attacks and sent over 500 infantrymen and 30 tanks. The first attack was repulsed, but the second obliged us to withdraw slightly. The enemy suffered heavy casualties in infantry and tanks, and we are still holding the western slopes of the hill, about eight miles from Teburba. The French 19th Corps made progress four miles towards Pont du Fahs, but is finding great difficulty in pushing further north.

Heavy Fighting in the North

In the northern area, where the 2nd American Corps is making determined efforts, the fighting was exceedingly heavv. We occupied the slopes of Jebel Neftah, seven miles east of Sidi Nsir, and now dominate Deftah Valley. The forces holding up the Eighth Army on the left flank consist of 80 per cent. Germans and 20 per cent. Italians, the correspondent concludes. A delayed despatch says: On Tuesday night one of our patrols at the eastern end of the Goubellat Plain succeeded in climbing up the huge base of Jebel Kournine, which stands as a sentinel in front of the last range of hills before the Tunis Plain. It found a small party of the enemy asleep, and took several prisoners. The patrol remained in possession of the hill until shelled off. Later, another force of our infantry went up and held on until dawn, when the enemy shelled the bare top of the hill so heavily that it also was forced to withdraw.