Evening star., 1942-11-25
Russian Drive Closes in on Nazis>
German Losses Rise to 100000;
Axis Massing Air Power in Tunisia
Scale of Attacks
Indicates Plans
For Bitter Fight
BY the Associated Press.

by int Associated PRESS.
LONDON, Nov. 25.-The scale
OF Axis air attacks in North
Africa was reported authorita-
lively today to show that Adolf
Hitler was backing up the enemy
land forces with great air power
for a bitter-end stand on the
Mediterranean shore-probably
even to the extent of draining
planes from his imperiled Rus
sian front.
This warning of the degree to
which the Axis was girding to save
its last footholds in North Africa
came soon after Foreign Secretary
Anthony Eden told the House of
Commons that the contest for North
Africa had reached an extremely
critical phase"
However, the strongest enemy
ground concentrations were believed
still to be those holding defensive
arcs some 80 miles outside Tunis and
Bizerte and in flight before Brit
aims 9th Army in Libya. although
the Vichy radio yesterday reported
strong formations landing at Gabes
and Sfax in Southern Tunisia.
GA German broadcast said Axis
troops in Tunisia had been REIN
forced by armored formations,
artillery and other mechanical
detachments and had secured
their hold on roads and rail lines
along the coast and leading to-
ward the inland highlands.)
American, British and French
forces were reported Gaming the
length and breadth of Tunisia
clashing occasionally with enemy
patrols in short but violent engage
ments and preparing for the final
showdown with the Axis in Africa.
Shift in Planes Reported.
The assertion that Hitler probably
was weakening his air forces In
Russia to bolster those in the Medi-
terranean area came from an au-
thority whose name cannot be dis
closed, but 1t was supported by a
dispatch from Algiers, where an
Australian correspondent, John Jar
vie, telegraphed that he had learned
that an Axis squadron which raided
North African towns yesterday was
on the Stalingrad front three weeks
ago.
There was a dearth of news from
North Africa today although the
air war preliminary to the decisive
ground battle continued hotly.
The enemy air objectives appar-
emily were threefold-to rake ad-
vancing Allied columns in Tunisia
to blast shipping and choke off sup
plies and reinforcements as far as
possible and to fly in men and weap-
ons across the Mediterranean mar
rows from Sardinia and Sicily.
Allies Seek Out Enemy.
Long-range American P-38 fight
ers ranged the skies above the
ground troops. seeking out German
and Italian concentrations, attack
ing troop columns and trains and
occasionally engaging Axis planes.
-Four German planes were shot down
and a troop train was riddled by
these fighters near Gabes yesterday.
A Reuters (British dispatch said
mammoth German transport sea-
plane, capable of carrying 80 fully
equipped soldiers, was shot down
into the sea yesterday of the Tunis-
ian coast by long-range Raj fight
ters from Malta.
British observers said both the
British 9th Army in Libya and the
Allied army in Tunisia have built up
their forces for crushing blow at
both ends of the extended German
lines which would be launched at
any minute.
Advices from authorized spokes-
men, however, have indicated a
longer period of preparation for the
admittedly tough assignment.
Nazi Reinforcements Indicated.
Reports of engagements between
patrols OF the opposing armies in
Southern Tunisia and the aerial at
tack on an Axis troop train near
Gabes, little more than 100 miles
from the Libyan border, suggested
that the Germans are throwing
heavy reinforcements into Southern
(See AFRTCA pooa A-a7