Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1943-04-27
Rapid Offensive
Is Continued
By Americans
BY the Associated Press.

10 WlJIlln miles OF Ule 1uIllS-
Pont du Fahs road and have de-
stroyed 80 German tanks in the
big scale battle which has ragged
since Sunday, Allied headquar-
tiers announced today.
Farther north the British LIST
Army infantry cleared II miles of
the road from Medjez-El-Bab to
Tebourba and reached Toum rail-
road station, only % miles west of
Tunis, front-line dispatches re-
ported and for the first time since
last November the Allies again were
on the threshold to the Tunis plain.
The same reports said the French
skirting the Mediterranean had
Achkel, which almost adjoins Lake
Bizerte. apparently this placed the
British and French within % miles
of both the twin cities of Bizerte
and Tunis)
In the sector between Medjez-El
Bah and the Mediterranean, the
Americans of 1t. Gen. George S.
Patton, jr., continued their rapid
advance and assaulted the two stra-
tegic knobs, Green Hill and Bald
Hill, the most heavily fortified
mountains in the northern sector.
American infantry attacked Die
bel Ell Azzog, 10 miles west of Ma
teur, and in the area west of Lake
Achkel but pulled back under
heavy counter-flre. The enemy's
position is north of strongly forth
fed JENA.
South of JENA, the Americans
succeeded, however, in occupying
Djebel Ell Aired.
The Allied thrusts accompanied
gains all along the 140-mile front in
fighting which the Allied headquar-
tiers communique characterized as
Of undated ferocity" They were
participated in by Allied air forces
which flew more than 1000 sortieS
in an air offensive which the an
nouncement said was of increasing
intensity"
Threaten to Cut Off Base.
Armored spearheads of the British
iabbing southeast /, of Goubellat
threatened to cut off the big supply
base at Pont Gu Fahs, "a miles
southwest of Tunis, which already
was menaced by the much-feared
Moroccan Counters who had driven
northeast along the Tunisian dor
sal to a hill overlooking the town.
The Counters went like smoke"
in their push on Pont du Fahs from
the Southwest yesterday, front line
dispatches said, and were within 2
miles of the objective.
The tank battle here, which ap-
peared to be the key to the great
fight raging all along the front, had
cost the Germans 20 tanks in the
last "a hours.
In the wild and deadly action LIST
Army armored columns had reached
one point only miles from the
supply road running northeast Of
Pont du Fahs and a second column
had battered its way to within +
miles of the artery.
Among the 20 enemy tanks de-
stroyed in the battle in which the
Germans we're believed to have COM
mitted all or most of their armored
reserves we're five Cotton Tigers.
In unison with British LIST Army
and American advances, the British
9th Army infantry too made Slight
advances in difficult hill fighting,
q spokesman said.
But the main theaters were on
the Axis western flank where Brit
ish Churchill tanks had been used
in some cases to climb peaks 1000
feet high and support the infantry.
The American advance south of
Jefna, too, was against extremely
difficult resistance" with the Ger
man rearguards leaving heavy mine
fields behind to cover their general
retreat.
But the Americans were reported
making progress in the valley east
of Sedjenane and west of Lake
Achkel.
The communique said 260 prison.
ers were taken in the Germans rock
and concrete grottoes on Long Stop
Hill, the eastern end of which
finally was cleaned out to allow the
British to advance on Tebourba, the
gateway to Tunis.
The British had stormed onto the
crest of the hill three days ago. and
when the exhausted remnants of
the garrison surrendered. the enemy
quit the rolling ground beyond-the
first time he had abandoned de-
feasible high ground without fight.
AS in the drive last November, the
Allied gain toward Tebourba threat
ened to divide the Germans into
two pockets around Bizerte and
Tunis.
. German strength is being hourly
reduced, and it has developed into
a question of how long he can stand
it," a military source said in an
nouncing that British tank losses
had been light in the Pont du Fahs
thrust.
Convoy Is Attacked.
The Germans still were trying
desperately to reinforce their bridge
head, however, and as the weather
lifted the cloak of fog from the
Sicilian Strait the Allied air force
struck a heavy blow at the supply
lines.
e Fighting bombers, striking south
of the island of Marettimo, west of
Sicily, blew up one motor barge,
left two ships burning and one with
its port stern under the water, while
another vessel was seen to capsize,"
said an Air Forces statement. :.
"a, Other fighter-bombers blew up
another ship northeast of Cape Bon.
- Railroad detectives at Tebourba
and Mateur also were blasted.
Tactical Air Force bombers and
fighters delivered one of the heav-
hest cooperative blows of the cam
.paign against German ground
{See AFRICA, Page A-24s
a