Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1943-05-11

who had retreated into the PENN.
sula S mountains.
british officers on the Cap
Bon front estimated three days
ago that 10000 Axis troops had
reached the peninsula)
Infantry forces, which followed
closely behind the tank break.
through, occupied Soliman, Grom.
balia and Mcneil Bou Zelfa, three
towns forming a triangle in the
valley of the twin rivers of Ouec
ell Melch and Oued ell Djourf anc
controlling the main roads across
the base of the peninsula.
Stubborn Resistance
There was no let up, however, in
the stubborn resistance of the
southern Nazi forces. At one point
they even put in a counterattack
against French forces. 1t was re-
pulsed.
The 9th Army made an attack
against the die-hard German
fighters southeast of Saouaf, II
miles northwest of Enfidaville, and
took IS prisoners and II small field
guns, and also made an assault on
the right flank along the marshy
coastal strip due north of Emf
daville. The latter attack met des-
perate resistance.
The French, fighting alongside the
British 9Th Army, mopped up a
number of small pockets in the
neighborhood of Zaghouan. The
Germans made their ineffective
counterattack 3 miles south of Mo-
ghrane. just to the north of Ia
ghouan and about 80 miles west of
Hammamet.
So completely blotted out was the
German air force in this theater
that just one enemy plane was seen
in the Tunisian sky. 1t was
Focke- Wulf 100 fighter and it was
trying to slip away. 1t was shot
down.
Five Small Boats Sunk.
The naval section of the commu-
nique said five small boats were
sunk off Cap Bon yesterday and
Sunday night in hopping up the de-
tachments caught at sea. and said
many prisoners had been captured.
Among them was German gen.
eral caught trying to escape. That
made seven generals captured.
Intense naval activity still pre-
walls off the coast of Cap Bon Pc
Ursula where large fires we're seen
last night. The coast is closely
watched and blockaded and the
work continues said the commu-
nique.
The Allied air forces sent over
100 medium bombers to smash Pan
tellaria Island airfield, 40 miles off
Cap Bon, for the fifth time in three
days, while a strong force of Flying
Fortresses hammered the airhelds
of Milo and Borizzo in Sicily.
Malta's squadrons of fighter
bombers and bombers attacked Bis
carl, MARSHA and Porto Empedocle
in Sicily. unloading bombs on air
fields, railway stations and power
stations. Four-engined Raj planes
delivered their second important at
tack on Messina, in Sicily, in "a
hours.
So nearly knocked out is Pam
tellaria air base that only one enemy
aircraft came up to meet the bomb
ers. 1t was an Italian plane and,
after seeing the size of the forma-
ton. the pilot decided to keep out
of the way.
Violent Explosion.
A small feet of landing craft
and dock installations also were at
tackled here A violent explosion
amid the jetties and warehouses was
reported by the departing bombers
Light bombers and fighter bomb
ers maintained a round-the-c clock
straf1ng of roads and few small
boats. Night flying Hurricanes
caught motor traffic in the path of
their flares and other airmen
fiercely bombed the airhelds at
Kourba, Mcneil Temime and Cap
mas EAoddl DIV VIC Ca CIIlC llOl llleIl
tip of the cape whel number of
Junkers transports were wrecked
In typical sweeps, Spitfre
wrecked two staff cars, six trucks
and trailer on the road north of
Hammanet, while Hurricane shot
up a small boat containing 10 Ger
mans who had no oars and only a
shirt for a sail.
The docks and other targets at
Palermo, north shore Sicilian port,
were bombed again by fleet of
Wellingtons Sunday night, following
up the Furnishing Sunday daylight
raid by 400 American bombers, the
last largest single aerial operation
in the history of Mediterranean war
fare.
The Allied air forces lost five
planes and brought down four enemy
planes yesterday and two Sunday
night, the communique said.
Intense Naval Activity.
Headquarters said naval activity
OF the coast was intense and that
"the coast is closely watched and
blockaded and the work continues
OF hopping up small parties of the
enemy striving to escape by sea-"
(The Italian communicate.
broadcast by the Rome radio, was
quick to acknowledge the latest
Axis setback. 1t said Allied forces
had reached the southeast coast
Of the Cap Bon Peninsula and
that British 9Th Army attacks
= continued in the south, but
claimed that violent Axis coun-
terattacks had nullified the AL
lied gains in the latter sector.
(The Italians also said Allied
planes raided Trapani and Porto
Empedocle in Sicily and Pantel-
leria Island and that seven big
2 bombers were shot down. Two
more big bombers and eight
, fighter planes also were shot
down by German fighters south
of Sicily, it was claimed. The
communlque asserted that Axis
& planes BOMBED Algiers and Gabes.