“ENORMOUS DANGER”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 April 1943, Page 4

“ENORMOUS DANGER”

FACED BY ROMMEL’S FORCES ACCORDING TO NAZI MILITARY , SPOKESMEN. ENCIRCLEMENT EVADED FOR MOMENT. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, Noon.) LONDON. April 11. That Remmel’s forces are “enormously endangered,” is the admission of military spokesmen in Berlin as the Axis forces, blasted by Allied bombers and hotly pursued by the two Allied armies, are apparently withdrawing into the north-eastern corner of the Tunisian triangle. The latest dispatches from the fighting line z suggest that Rommel has already withdrawn a majority of his forces from south of Sousse. Reuter's correspondent at Allied Headquarters says Rommel is retreating into the coastal “strongbox” in the Tunisian tip, which the bulk of his men and equipment have apparently reached. He has thus for the moment evaded encirclement by the rapid advance of the Eighth Army and the Allied drive from Fondouk, which has broken into the coastal plain and is now approaching Kairouan. The Eighth Army is racing ahead towards Sousse, the third biggest Tunisian port. Eighth Army troops are already beyond Lahencha, 50 miles south of Sousse on the main inland road and are now heading for El Djern, one of Rommels former main aerodromes. The spectacle before the Eighth Army is of roads and tracks packed with fleeing enemy transport, and Rommel's rearguards moving from one low ridge to another, laying down a hasty screen of anti-tank guns until the retreat has reached new positions, as the main forces are heading for the mountains in the region of Enfidaville.