The Waterbury Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1917-1946, 1943-04-21
Nazis Evacuate Enfdavillo
in Face of MurderOus
Onslaught
KNIVES, BAYONETS
USED BY BRITISH
Great Aerial Support Be-
ing Given to Ground
Offensive
BY VIRGIL PINKLEY

UNITED Press Staff Correspondent
Allied Headquarters, North
Africa, April 81. - (UP) -
The British Eighth Army
has smashed through four
furious detectives in the first
xiS mountain defense line
SO miles south of Tunis. A
great battle still ragged today
on the Sweltering, rocky
TuniSian coastal hills as
Allied air forces pressed an unpre-
cedented assault on the enemy and
the British First Army jabbed the
Axis western flank.
Using heavy artillery, tommy
guns, bayonets and knives, the men
of General Sir Bernard Montgom-
cry scaled blood bathed l,200-foot
Djebel Garci, a dozen miles west Of
Enfidaville, and then cut suddenly
eastward through whirlwind %
German artillery fire to the little
Arab village of Takrouna, two miles
west by northwest of EnfidavillA
which the enemy abandoned. Mont
gomery quickly began moving ~
his heaviest artillery.
Nazis Thrown Back
-Four times the best GerTnan
troops that Marshal Erwin Rommel
could put into the field counter
attacked "like wild men" but were
thrown back with heavy losses On
both sides. A dispatch from Ned
Russell, United Press correspondent
with Montgomery, said the maiu
battle was on a five mile front be-
tween Takrouna and Djebel Carol
where sweating, cursing troops STD
are locked in bitter battle.
The Allied offensive was support.
ed by what American and British
headquarters officially described az
1.-The heaviest and most destructive
blows yet struck against enemy air
power in Tunisia."
Heavy artillery and aerial bonn
bardment, blasts of mortar and
machinegun fire and-at the show
down-bitter hand-to-hand fight
ing in which the Eighth Army used
knives and bayonets marked this
first stage of the Allied offensive
against the strong Tunis and Bizerte
mountain defense lines.
Fight to Bitter End
The fury of the German counter
attacks, all of which were broken
up by the rampaging Eighth Army,
left no doubt that Nazi Marshal
Erwin Rommel intended to fight ia
the bitter end on every rocky hill
side and every ravin guarding the
opening to the plains around Tunis.
But the Allied forces, spanked BY
nonstop aerial attacks that brought
down q more enemy airplanes on
Tuesday for a three-day total Of
Isl destroyed. were striking from
the west as well as through the
Enfidaville sector on the south.
On the Medjez-El-Bab sector, less
than 80 miles west Of Tunis, the
British First Army under Lieut.. Gen.
K. A. N. Anderson. pushed forward
again in local fighting and seized
another town-Smidia-a few miles
north of Medjez.
(Axis broadcasts reported fight
ing with a ferocity never before
attained in the North African eazns
paign" was raging in the Enffdaville
sector but acknowledged British
gains which radio Algiers estimated
at three miles,.
Enfdaville Occupied
Four Axis counter-attacks were
made almost as soon as Montgom-
cry launched his first moonlight
advance Monday night but Enflda.
vile and the important heights tc
the west. including Djebel GorcL
were occupied early Tuesday.
Meanwhile, American and British
air forces continued heavy attacks
on the enemy. especially along the
road to TuniS in support OF the
Eighth Army drive. Many vehicles
Continued on Page %