FURIOUS FIGHTING IN TUNISIA

Southland Times, Issue 24986, 24 February 1943, Page 5

FURIOUS FIGHTING IN TUNISIA

ALLIES CHECK ENEMY DRIVE ON THALA * - (United Press Association —Telegraph Copyright) ’(Rec. 1 a.m.) LONDON, February 23. After 24 hours of furious fighting the Allied forces have checked the Axis drive from the Kasserine Pass in the direction of Thala, the gateway to the Kremamsa plateau. The drive was checked four, miles from Thala. Not only has the drive been checked but considerable losses have been inflicted on the enemy. A good many prisoners have been taken and a number of tanks destroyed. The drive on Thala was not as formidable as was at first thought. The enemy used 40 tanks and not 70 as was previously reported. There is no fresh news from southern Tunisia where the Bth Army is continuing to push on to the Mareth Line. General Marie Bethouart, Chief of the French Military Mission in the United States, predicted that the German Tunisian offensive would peter out for lack of a follow-through. He disclosed that the offensive was expected two months ago. The enemy in Tunisia was hemmed in by two strong Allied armies. General Bethouart expressed the opinion that enemy losses would prevent exploitation of his success in depth but he foresees a long, tough fight to oust the Axis from Tunisia. The New York Tinies’ correspondent in North Africa says: Despite reports of the enemy wearying the Tunisian situation remains serious. Field-Marshal Rommel is apparently determined to gain the Kremamsa plateau, thereby flanking the British Ist Army to the north while minor attacks pin down the American forces in the Tebessa region. He has evidently decided on an offensive all along the line while the Bth Army prepares an assault on Gabes. Should the Germans break through and spill on to the Kremamsa plain the tactical results would be most serious. The plateau is entirely flat and is excellent tank country without decent defensive positions until the line of mountains is reached running from southwest to north-east. If Rommel reaches the plain the Allies would be forced to readjust their positions in the mountains west of Ousseltia valley. It is clear that such a movement would separate, at least temporarily, the British and American halves of the Tunisian army. Rommel’s stroke towards Thala indicates that he is gambling upon completing his manoeuvre in the north before the Bth Army launches an attack heavy enough to compel him to turn southward to meet it.

Rommel’s offensive may be part of a daring far-reaching plan involving a German attack on Allied positions in Africa, via Spain, suggests The New York Herald Tribune’s military correspondent, Major Eliot. Reports of picked troops moving to the Spanish frontier through France and the tigntenmg of police and military control on the oorders support such a speculation, r uithermore, the Axis propaganda machine is not playing up Rommel’s successes in Tunisia, suggesting that the Germans are waiting for something biggei o come. The present quiescence of the Luftwaffe may be the result of preparations to invade Africa via s pa' n ', Berlin radio announced that the Spanish authorities had taken over the Tangier telegraph office hitherto under French administration. The Tangier correspondent of The Daily Express says it was earlier reported that Gen-

eral Giraud had warned the Spanish authorities that any attempt to seize the telegraph office would be forcibly resisted. The office controls the only cable linking North Africa with London. . The New York Times in an editorial says: Reports of the German withdrawals of munitions and supplies from the Russian front and the restoration of Generals Halder, Guderian and von Brauchitsch to power indicate that, the army has regained control from Hitler and is now preparing to carry out its own strategy, calling for defensive in the east and offensive in the west. This, might well involve an invasion of Spain in an effort to overwhelm Gibraltar and gain a foothold in Spanish Morocco for a two-front rear against the Allies in North Africa. In such a case Rommel’s offensive in Tunisia becomes an overture for more ambitious German operations.