Evening star., 1943-04-17
First Army Renews Tunis Drive
As French Bring More Pressure
On West End of RommeI Line
British Eighth Also
Engages Outposts
And Patrols
By the Associated Press.

NORTH AFRICA, April 17.-Brit-
iSh infantry of the 1st Army has
renewed its pressure in the
rugged hills guarding the gate
way to the plain of Tunis after
seizing the dominating height of
Diebel Ang north of Medjez-El-
Bah, a communique from Gen.
Dwight D. EiSenhoWer's head
quarters announced today.
At the same time the French to
the south in the strategic Bou Arada
and Pont du FahS area, with Vigor-
Gus patrol action, continued to bear
on the western flank of Marshal
Erwin Rommels Enfidaville line
while the British 9th Army engaged
outposts and patrols in frontal ac-
tivity.
% Axis Planes Destroyed.
Again the Axis air forces came off
badly. losing % planes yesterday and
Thursday night. u of them big Ital-
ian or German transports, in clashes
with Northwest African, Western
desert and Malta airmen. The desert
pilots DESTROYED 10 planes in one en-
gagement when Spitfires sighted II
to 13 transports with fighter escort
over the Tunisian coast. Altogether
the Allies lost eight planes.
The pressure of the 1st Army of
1t. Gen. K. A. N. Anderson against
the relatively thin screen of high
ground standing between it and
the open country to TuniS, 80 miles
distant. was continued with fierce
determination. but the Communique
did not indicate any advance of the
British mountain brigadeS since
they took firm hold of Djebel Ang,
8 miles north of Medjez-el-Bsb, in
midWeek.
Strong Points Hammered.
French forces which swept the
Tunlsian eastern dorsal clean of
the enemy hammered at strong
points to which Rommel had
anchored the western end Of his
southern defenses. and the 6th
Army probed this line, running 30
miles due west of Enfidavllle. where
enemy artillery was emplaced on
the high ground so miles south of
Tunis.
Flying FortreSses again led the
devastating Allied air offensive with
an afternoon raid on Palermo Har-
Dor in Sicily yesterday. where they
scored direct hits on four merchant
vessels and damaged two destroyerS,
one of which caught fire. In addl-
ton. two hopper barges and a motor
ferry were destroyed. numerous small
craft wrecked and many bursting
bombs dropped on the power station,
naval headquarters, the seaplane
base and the warehouse area
American Lightnings at almost the
same time located and bombed from
a low level three supply ships and
large barge in a cove near Cap Ser
rat, blowing up the barge.
Oudna airfield, south of Tunis,
was covered with bomb bursts from
large formations of medium Mitch
ellis and MarauderS and six to eight
trucks were destroyed and a nearby
railway station wrecked in this
foray.
Two More Ships Hit.
Two more ships were hit during
aerial operations, one tanker at
Catania and the other supply ship
In a convoy when Malta-base tor
pedo planes attacked.
Six enemy planes were destroyed
yesterday, while the Allies lost three,
the communique said.
The action north of Medjez-El-
Bah apparently was in the dominat-
ing heights where British infantry,
supported by maSSed artillery, had
widened a bulge IN the Axis defense
chain along the road toward Te-
bourba and TuniS.
(The German high command,
in its communlque. described the
situation in TunlSia as compara-
lively quiet. The communique,
broadcast from Berlin and re-
corded by the Associated Press,
said II Allied planes were shot
down in the Mediterranean area.
The German radio. in broad
cast recorded by Reuters in Lon
don, acknowledged the situation
of the AXIS troops in TunlSla re-
mains critical" but also said:
Some people already are talking
about second Dunkerque IN Tu-
nisia. but the German and Italian
troops intend to fight to the very
end"
"'t (The Italian communlque
broadcast by the Rome radio and
recorded by the Associated Press
said there was intensified artll-
lery activity in the Southern Tu-
nisla sector and that an Allied
attack in the western sector was
repulsed with heavy Allied losses.
(The Italians asserted that IL
British and American planes
were shot down in aerial combats
yesterday.
american bomber raids on
Catania caused five deaths and
275 injured and on Palermo five
deaths and 35 injured, the war
bulletin said)
From the mountains where the
infantry units of 1t. Gen. K. A. N
Anderson are fighting it out with
crack Axis units, sometimes in bitter
hand-to-hand encounters, the white
walls of Tunis are visible on clear
days.
Hanging on to the 2,000-foot
Djebel Ang, which they captured and
lost and recaptured in few hours
of bloody fighting, the British were
thrusting forward in fierce attacks
aimed at winning control of the
dominating heights on the road to
Tebourba. l3 miles away
The 1st Armys offensive in the
Medjez-El-Bab sector-the ancient
western gateway to Carthage-was
overshadowed during the last week
by the 9th Army's whirlwind ad-
vance through Sfax and Sousse
along the coastal road. But with the
forces of Field Marshal Erwin ROM
mel and Col. Gen. Jurgen Won Arnim
intrenched for siege on the noun
famous perimeter of their Bizerte-
Tunis bridgehead, the fighting
around Medjez-El- Bah became Of