Evening star., 1943-04-18
African Front

While Gen. Montgomery rests his
troops after their spectacular dash which
took them from SfaX on April 10 to Err
fidaville, 1t. Gen. Anderson in command
of the British 1st Army exploited the
advantage he gained by the capture of
Medjez-El-Bab and pushed on ahead to
a high point, Djebel Ang, 2,000-foot
mountain about miles from Medjez-
El-Bab and only Is miles from Tebourba.
After the capture of the mountain from
which Bizerte and Tunis may be seen
and which gives a dominating position
for swift advance down toward Tunis
along alternative routes, Won Arnim's
troops struck back savagely twice Thurs
day regaining the hilltop on the second
attempt, but the British Immediately
countered with a new drive and FTicay
once more took control, paving the way
for heavy assault on the Tunisian cap
ital
The Germans now are penned in cor
ridore which runs south from Enfldaville
about so miles to the mountains and then
north between Medjez-El-Bab and Te-
bourba to point on the coast northwest
of Cape Serrat, which is now in the
hands of combined French and Mo.
roccan force.
The terrain gives natural advantages
to the defending forces, who occupy most
of the high points and number OF fierce
counterthrusts against the Allied troops
have occurred. The greater part Of the
Allied offensive at present is being car
ried on by Gen. Alexander, while Mont
gomery masses his strength and brings
up his supplies for heavy drive up the
coastal plain toward Tuniss
In the meantime, according to reports
from various sources, the evacuation of
Axis troops is already un-
Evacuation der way by air although
Held Storted the Berlin radio insists
that there will be no
Dunkirk, that the German and Italian
troops will fight to the bitter end
Whether Rommel elects to stand and
fight or attempt to leave, Allied airpower
which is now supreme in North Africa is
making his course difficult. Only 10
air fields remain in Axis possession in
Tunisia, three near Bizerte, four near
Tunis and three in the mountains. So
steadily are these fields attacked, the
Axis is conhning their use to fighter
planes in feeble effort to block strafing
and bombing raids on their troops on the
ground.
Rommels plans to supply or evacuate
bis Afrika Korps received a series of
setbacks during the week when Allied
planes, including Flying Fortresses,
bombed number of ships and huge air
transport planes British submarines
also were effective, announcement being
made last Monday that IS Axis ships of
various sizes had been torpedoed,
On Monday, also, Al enemy planes
including 80 transports were shot down,
the Allies losing IA in this activity.
Tuesday, Flying Fortresses gave the har-
hor at Tunis a good going over, damag-
ing many ships though none were
claimed sunk. 1t was reported Wednes-
day that number of Italian troops had
been taken to Sicily and Sardinia dur
ing the night in small boats but, if so.
they found that the war went right
along with them for Flying Fortresses
raided the air fields at Castelvetrano
and Milo in Sicily, 81 transport planes
being smashed at the former and % at
the latter. Many others were damaged.
At Milo, in addition. a large gasoline
dump was blown up. No American
planes were lost in these raids.
While the Americans were hitting from
over the Mediterranean, big British
bombers flew across France to blast the
Italian naval base at Spezia, which lies
about so miles south of Genoa. This
was the 43d raid on italian cities by
planes based on England.
In air battles over the Tunisian air.
fields, 81 Axis planes were shot down
to the loss of for the Allies. In the
weeks fighting the Axis lost 20l aircraft.
of which l34 were air transports capable
of ferrying 10000 tons of supplies
month in daily round-trips.