Evening star., 1943-04-25
U.S.. and French Forces C|osinq in
On Bizerte From Three Directions:
Romme| Has Fled Allies Believe
British Overrun
Strategic Hill
In Tunis Push
By the Associated Press.

ALLIED HEADQUARTERS IN
NORTH AFRICA, April "a
American troops who sped Sc
cretly to battle from Southern
Tunisia and French forces on
the northern coast were closing
on Bizerte from three directions
today and the British were over
running strategic Long Stop Hill
in their push toward Tunis
against the rapidly shrinking
Axis siege line.
In the midst OF this sudden out
burst of fierce fighting for the prin-
cipal remaining objectives in Africa
the great naval base and the capital
1t was disclosed that the German
commander, Marshal Erwin Rom
mel, had disappeared.
Gen. Sir Harold Alexander's 9Th
Army group headquarters an
nounced the capture of a document
dated March 10 which indicated
chat Rommel, who led his Afrika
Korps into Tunisia after the long
retreat from Ell Alamein, no longer
Is in Africa.
The document was signed by Col
Gen. Jurgen Won Arnim as general
officer, commander in chief, and not
by Rommel.
Conflicting Reports.
There have been numerous re-
ports recently that Rommel had
been spirited out of Tunisia to Or
ganize Axis defenses along the
southern European coast. Other re-
ports have limited that he had
fallen into disgrace with Hitler and
been removed, while still others said
he was recovering in Germany from
an attack of malaria.
Shifted from the south swiftly
and secretly, American troops in
the north have launched a full-scale
attack against Axis troops, front
dispatches said, and after a x-mile
advance are fighting their way from
hill to hill within 80 miles of Bizerte
CA French communique, re-
corded in London from North
African broadcastS, said French
forces had advanced more than
II miles in the Cap Serrat area.
This would place them at least
within % miles of Bizerte, since
Cap Serrat is only 35 miles from
the big naval base)
The British 1st Army, striking
hard on the western side of the
enemy's defense line, was reported
to have captured the German Yer
dun" stronghold at Long Stop Hill,
which is % miles from Tunis and
the key to the Tunisian coastal
plain. Long Stop Hill. which has
teen flercely defended by the Ger
mans for months, guards a pass
leading from Medjez- -El-Bab to
TuniS.
Seyen-Mile Advance.
While one American unit fought
its way toward Mateur, important
traffic junction between Bizerte and
Tunis, another force of 1t. Gen.
George S. Patton. jr's End Army
Corps was reported to have hacked
Its way through stubborn enemy
opposition for seven miles northeast
Of Beja and to the north of the
Beja-Mateur road.
American artillery pounded Ger
man positions around the clock, said
Associated Press Correspondent
Harold V. Boyle, in the field with
the United States troops. He added
that on one hill taken by Americans
yesterday. all 200 Nazis there were
either killed or captured.
An announcement from Gen.
AleXander's Allied ground troop
headquarters highly praised the
speed and secrecy with which
Gen. Patton's American troops we're
transferred from the Ell Guetar
sector in Southern Tunisia to fall
on the enemy in the north.
This decision involved the mov-
ing of large numbers of troops and
great quantities of stores and equip
ment along the whole length of the
front, and senior British officers
have the fullest admiration for the
excellent staff work, particularly for
the speed and secrecy with which
the move was carried out" the an
nouncement said. The discipline of
United States troops also was
praised.
While the Americans joined in
(See AFRICA, Page ABB