The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-04-08
Americans and BritOns Join Forces; !; Many Pris-
 Oners Captured
LAST DITCH BATTLE ENEMY'S FINAL HOPE
Axis Hold Formidable Hill Positions Guarding Tuni-
 sian Coastal Plains
BY VIRGIL PINKLEY limited Prose Staff r,ovre~noni,

United Press Staff Correspondent,
 Allied Headquarters, North Africa, April 8. - (UP) - Allied armies smashed at cornered Axis forces in Tu- niSia from the south, west and north and from the air today, reporting slow but steady gains on almost every sector. Following junction of the British Eighth Army with American forces east of Fl Guettar and about 40 miles west of Gabes, the two forces joined in relentless pursuit of Marshal Er- win Rommers Afrika Korps while in the far north the British First Army gained four or five miles on the Medjez Fl Bab sector in their drive to turn the Axis northern flank. Allied columns on the cen- tral front continued their pressure toward the coast, now only 70 miles distant at some points. CThe London radio said today that the Italian General Giovann. Messe, formerly in command oi Italians on the Russian front, according to Berlin reports, which added saht Ronmel and Nazi Gen. eral Jurgen Won Arnim were under Messe's command. If correct. this apparently would be an effort to put the responsibility for the final defense of Tunisia on Italian Sfloulders.)
 The Axis forces in Tunisia now were squeezed into a trap about 200 miles long and averaging about 50 miles wide, bounded by Allied guns and the sea.
 Front line dispatches were more optimistic than at any time since the real battle for TImisia began ard Allied sources described the enemy as a battered and bleeding boxer, driven to the ropes but stil lable to throw number of hard punches.
 General Dwight D. Eisenhower's communique today disclased that the First Army had swung over to the attack laong an eight to lO-niile front in the Medjez Fl Bab area in an attempt to turn the enemy's northern flank as part of the Allied nutcracker offensive to squeeze the Axis into the sea.
 A terrific artillery barrage siln- liar to the 500-gun bombardment laid down by the eighth army in the south. paved the way for the first army's attack, launched at 3:30 a m. Wednesday approximately 44 miles south of Bizerte and 36 miles west southwest of Tunis.
 Official reports said the troops under Lieut.. Gen. Kenneth A. N. Anderson gained their first objec- tives on schedule and captured many prisoners.
 Alexander Congratulated
 Eisenhower formally congratulat- ed Gen. Sir Harold Alexander, com manding the Tunisian ground forces. on the British Eighth Army's break through at Gabes Gap and said that the Allies were "now in 3 position to exact the maximum from the enemy
 The Eighth Army break-through in a night attack and its junction on Wednesday with the Americans fighting under Lieut.. Gen. George s Patton, Jr., in the area east C Fl Guettar resulted in a genera enemy withdrawal in that zone ex. cept for pockets of resistance i1 strong hill positions. The Allies toos i many prisoners. who comprised about five or six Italians to one German.
 Actual junction Of the Allied forces occurred about IS miles east of Fl 0uettar and south of Djebel Chemsi on the road from 0afsa to Gabes. Patrols were the first tO greet each other as the enemy lied northward under heavy air attack by the United Air Forces of the Allies.
 The simultaneous advance by An- derson'g army in the north and ag. gressive operations along the central (Contlnued on Page Q