The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-01-05
NAzl BOMBERS RUIN VILLAGES IN NORTH AFRICA

On the TunlStan FTont1er, North Africa (Delayed) (UP)-Black smoke and pillows of flame rose in a giant column from the center of an Arab village of rain-soaked adobe houses. Explosion after explosion went oil as tins of gasoline blew up and burned. British tommies, forming a line, stolidly passed boxes of am- fnunition from the edge of the fire to safety. Int muddy road 50 yards away. a woman shook her fist at the sky. and screamed in French:
 Damn those boche! They've ruined our homes. But France will be fyee!" Y ;. A Junkers. S8 had swung through the clouds and dropped bombs that started a fire. Five minutes later another German bomber slipped in and dropped two more explosives. Only heap of rubble stood where the AraE's homes had been. Two Tommies from the salvage line were dead.
 Recall French Villages
 Lorries intended for hauling gas- oline rolled, with wounded, to an emergency hospital set up in a schooll1ouse. ~
 saw that bombing from spot too close for comfort. In the rec ords 1t appears only as minor in- cident but there have been many such minor incidents as the Ger mans attempt to halt the growing flow of Allied supplies to the front
 There are dozens of scenes remi- niscent of French villages during the last war. This time, however the villages have been wrecked by bombs and Strafing from aircraft as well as by infantry fighting and artillery fire.
 Several telephone poles stand ii1 grotesque slivers from machine gun bullets spattered along the roads by low flying German fight CTS.
 West of Medjez-el-Bab, on a bar ren, open tableland, lies the village of Beja. There medieval Moorisll fortress overlooks battered houses among which British, French and American soldiers wander. Rows o1 bullet holes pockmark the walls Piles of plaster brick. and scraps of dingy furniture fill the places where families once lived. ,
 Flat Land Aids Bombing
 Along the fiat country around Beja trucks roll, with no trees tc hide the trafic or to prevent enemy planes from zooming over nearby low-hills and skimming the ground as they strafe.
 Despite the blows to their homes the inscrutable Arabs return to the villages as soon as the attacks end to sit in front of the surviving cof. fee shops or to stand on street cor. ners in their red fezzes and ragged robes.
 They sit almost motionless. fol hours on end, among the ruins. as though they were impartial ob- servers of this business of killing.
 The Arab children. on the other hand, trail the soldiers about. beg. giug for chocolate. biscuits, cigar cites and "chew gum"
 reddle Eggs and Oranges
 Tn the country, along roads fre- quently strafed by the Messer- schmitts. Arab boys hall the pass ing loFTies to peddle eggs and or- anges.
 The youngsters are shrewd al business, demanding high prices and refusing to dickeF. but the sol. diars are SO delighted to get fresh eggs that they willingly pay ai much as five francs afi egg although the pre-occupatior quotation in the villages was one franc.
 The Arabs generally are in rags and tatters. Many - men, women and children = 70 barefoot tn all weather.
 The soldiers are taflled by tho ccd Arab custom that tho men shall Eeep their arms under their robes. There S the Illusion of horc1s Of . arrsiae@ man ser fi'nr aII wnlk tbe