Evening star., 1943-05-02
BY EDWARD KENNEDY.


NORTH AFRICA, May 1.-Amer-
lean soldiers in their first large
scale bayonet attack of the Tu-
nisian campaign have stabbed
into the fringe of the fan-shaped
Axis bridgehead and captured
two strategic hills, United States
headquarters announced today,
while Allied airmen celebrated
the striking of the wars deadli-
est blow at Axis shipping in the
Mediterranean.
AS the artillery-supported infan-
trymen stormed their way up the
stoutly defended heights, the Allied
air forces caught concentration Of
enemy ships in the Straits of Sicily
and sank seven of the vessels and
hit at least two others.
Charging up the slopes in the face
of fierce opposition by crack Ger
man troops, the Americans under
1t. Gen. George S. Patton, jr., cap
tured both the Djebel Tahent,
known as Hill 609, in the Sidi N'Sir
area 16 miles southwest of Mateur,
and Hill 523, Immediately to the
south.
Americans Shell Mateur.
Even with these successes, the
Americans still were unable to look
down on the plains of Tunis, for
there are other heights to be taken
before they reach sight of the level
land.
But long-range American guns al
ready are hurting shells over the
mountains into the vital enemy rail
junction of Mateur, which lies
where the hills disappear and the
plain begins between Tunis and
Bizerte.
The action by the toughened
American troops who slipped into
the northern sector after battling
the Germans in the Maknassy area
was only part of the bitter fighting
all along the Tunisian front in
which the enemy lunged out with
several desperate counterattacks,
virtually all of which were re-
pulsed. '@
Axis forces gained little ground
against the British 1st Army east
and northeast of Medjez-el-Bab
and turned in slight gains against
the 9th Army In the south.
CThe Berlin radio said in a
broadcast recorded in New York
by the Associated Press that
infantry units of the British
9th Army had made a new,
concentrated attack in the
southern sector of the Tunisian
front but that it had been re-
pulsed by Axis troops.)
Two Destroyers Sunk.
A special announcement telling
OF the aerial blow against enemy
shipping off Cap Bon at the eastern
tip of Tunisia said it was known
that the Allied flyers sank two de-
stroyers, a corvette, a large motor
launch, a motor ferry, a motor
torpedo boat and a tank carrier.
Bombs also struck two merchant
ships, the announcement said.
(The Admiralty in London an
nounced that 10 more enemy
ships, including a large tanker,
had been torpedoed by British
submarines in the Mediterra-
nean)
Slight Withdrawals by the British
in the Djebel Bou Aoukaz area, 20
miles west of Tllnis, came after
the Germans had made three fierce
counterattacks supported by tanks.
The Nazis also were acknowledged
to have made some small gains
against the British 9th Army on
the southern end of their defense
line, but nowhere else did the Allies
give up a yard of ground they had
won In over week of hard fighting.
First Bayonet Charge.
The battle for Hill 523 was this
first important bayonet charge
launched by American troops in
Africa and veteran French soldiers
remarked that it recalled similar
American reliance on cold steel" in
France in the last war.
The Americans held most of Hill
500, but the enemy apparently chung
to part of the southern slopes. The
successful attack netted 200 Axis
prisoners. Facing the Americans
next was the 1,80O-foot Djebel Ann
ira.
Praising the performance of the
American troops In that sector, an
(See AFRICA, Page A-15D