ALLIED TROOPS IN CONTACT

Southland Times, Issue 25024, 9 April 1943, Page 5

ALLIED TROOPS IN CONTACT

Bth Army Cleans Up

Battlefield

(Rec. 10.30 p.m.) LONDON, April 8. Contact between the left flank of the Sth Army and the 2nd American Corps occurred south of Djebel Chemsi, about two miles north of the Gafsa-Gabes road and some 15 miles east of El Guettar. As contact was made heavy forces of Spitfires escorted American Mitchells, bombing enemy transports fleeing northwards from the area under a heavy smoke-screen. Latest front-line dispatches state that the Bth Army’s position continues to be satisfactory. Yesterday’s battlefield is being cleaned up and more prisoners have been taken. FRONTAL ATTACK

The British United Press correspondent with the Bth Army, describing General Sir Bernard Montgomery’s frontal attack against Field-Marshal Rommel, says: “Sweeping across the plain in front of the Gabes Gap under cover of a violent artillery barrage, the Bth Army on Tuesday burst into the thickest Axis defences at the Wadi Akarit just as the sun rose over the Mediterranean. A thunderous barrage of shells had crashed at 4.15 a.m. into the heavy recently-dug German defences along the Wadi Akarit and several thousand of General Montgomery’s best troops marched in battle formation across the plain. Bayonets gleamed amid flashes from the guns and shells bursting amid the thick network of German machine-gun nests and within the first four hours of the day several preliminary objectives were seized. The barrage continued to rock the desert as our guns plastered the Axis positions in a small area where the Wadi Akarit forks near the coastal road. Our troops advanced into a thick nest of machine-guns. Our infantry crossed the 100 yards wide wadi into the midst of the Axis positions. The wadi at this point has a gently sloping bank on the south, with a fairly steep bank on the north. Tanks were able to cross easily, but wheeled vehicles could not. Therefore, the engineers were in the forefront of the battle, clearing minefields and building a suitable slope on the northern bank so the supply lorries could cross.” CAPTURE OF HILLS The Daily Express correspondent says two hills formed part of Field-Marshal Rommel’s defence line—Rumana, 500 feet high, and Tebega Fatnass, 800 feet. Who held these hills held the wadi. They were ours after two hours of bitter fighting. We had hardly taken them when there was a counter-attack. The enemy knew that with the desert rats” on the hills their foothold in the wadi would crumble, but a storm of fire met the Germans and there were soon only isolated groups lying flat on the ground or sprinting from one bit of cover to another. Soon sweaty, sandbaked British troops were north of the wadi and only five miles from the shore. They had made'a bridge-head through which passed the units charged with the task of combing out the enemy in the wadi positions near the sea, whither our tanks began to move. Besides prisoners we captured much equipment, some of which our troops will be able to use.

ITALIAN CRUISER TORPEDOED HEAVY EXPLOSION HEARD (8.0.W.) RUGBY, April 7. The Admiralty announces that a British submarine yesterday attacked an Italian cruiser of the Regolo class in the Straits of Messina. The noise of a heavy explosion followed the attack, the full effects of which could not be observed. . Other submarines operating m the Mediterranean have torpedoed two tankers and a medium sized supply ship. One of the tankers was intercepted near Cape Spartivento in Italy while proceeding under an air and sea escort. The other tanker was torpedoed while it was being towed off the north coast of Sicily. The supply ship formed part of a convoy attacked near Marittino. Noisy but ineffective enemy counter-measures made it impossible to observe the full results of these attacks. At least, one tanker is believed to have been sunk.