Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1942-12-14
British Press Pursuit Of Romme|
After Unprecedented Air Attacks
Hell p Break Line Near Ell Aqhei|a
Precise Status of
Village Itself
Not Determined
By the Associated Press,

CAIRO, Dec. 14.-Unprece-
denied fighter bomber attacks
and steady land pressure have
broken Marshal Erwin Rommel's
fortified line east of Ell Agheila
and sent the remnants of his
African Corps into a fresh with
drawal toward Zauta En- Nofilia,
80 miles west of that strategic
center, the British said today.
THE enemy is retreating west
ward, relentlessly pursued by the
leading elements of our forces"
British Middle East headquarters
announced.
The broken Axis line had been
anchored at Ell Brega, on the Gulf
of Sirte 30 miles northeast of Ell
Agheila. Some prisoners were cap
tured at Ell Brega.
The precise status of Ell Agheila
itself, a coastal village f1anked by
the Mediterranean on the north and
impossible salt marshes on the
south, was not determined. But
the remains of Marshal Rommel's
heavy forces were not in evidence
and are believed to have been with
drawing in recent days, adding adj
ditional miles to the retreat of more
than TOO miles from the Ell Alamein
line in Egypt.
military observers in London
said the cryptic battle reports
indicated that a major advance
had been scored with suspicious
ease and that the main job of
smashing the last threat from
Marshal Rommel was still to be
done. German and Italian COM
muniques told only of artillery
and patrol activity in the battle
of Libya)
High Point of Success.
II the Allies actually hold Ell
Agheila they have reached the high
tide of Gen. Sir Archibald P.
Wavell's success in February. 1941,
when it was garrisoned temporarily
by a small British force.
(The Berlin radio broadcast to-
day that "it is officially an
nounced in Berlin that Marshal
Rommel has withdrawn his forces
from Ell Agheila to position
further westwards")
Meanwhile, comparatively little
action was reported from the Tuni- ;
sian land front.
Resuming it's Libyan drive after
a three-week lull the 9th Army
drove straight into Marshal Rom
mel's northern flank yesterday at
Ell Brega, on the approaches to
the 40-mile Ell Agheila defile. and
the British war bulletin said the
enemy was put to fight at little
cost" to Gen. B. L. Montgomery's
attacking units.
allied fighter bombers, operating
on an unprecedented scale, were
employed to harass the enemy" the
cormunique asserted Axis air &C
tivity was totally ineffective in pre-
venting these operations. In few
instances when German fighters at
tempted to interfere they were sue
cessfully engaged and at least six
aircraft were shot down"
Americans Play Big Role.
An American fighter group, one
of the finest shock formations in
the Allied Middle East air force,
was credited with playing an i'm
portant part in shattering, nom
stop dawn to-dusk assaults on the
retreating enemy yesterday.
This group. now composed of
seasoned United States pilots and
one Of the RATS most famous
fighter squadrons, was in action
again today, dive bombing and
strafing the foe.
One dispatch from the front said
the Sunday attacks registered a
record number of sorties for fighter
,bombers in any theater of war any
where"
Some 300 fighter bombers took off
with orders to stalk the German
vehicles of "thin-skinned variety"
They found their quarry and before
noon the line of retreat was dotted
with flaming and burned-out Nazi
armor.
For these assaults American-made
Kittyhawks and British Spitfires
were used.
A front-line account reaching
Cairo said that at noon the enemy
retreat was in full swing and that
-(T0nfinrad an Para AZ Col,,,,.x, \