Evening star., 1943-04-05
100 Fortresses Pound at Naples
Hit 21 Ships; Raj Blasts Kie|;
Patton Forces Check Nazi Blow
Montgomery's
Eighth Army
Is Inactive
By the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
ALLIED HEADQUARTERS IN
NORTH AFRICA, April 5.-Amer-
lean forces under 1t. Gen. George
S. Patton, jr., repulsed a German
counterattack in the Ell Guetar
sector and continued a drive to-
ward a junction with the British
9th Army of Gen. Bernard L.
Montgomery, 40 miles to the east
above the Central Tunisian port
of Gabes, it was announced to-
day.
Gen. Patton's infantrymen put on
a small-scale attack against a group
OF hills near the Gafsa- -Gabes road
and won them in hard fighting, an
Allied communique said.
German elite troops Immediately
counterattacked, but they were
beaten of and the Americans held
this new high ground, taking some
prisoners.
Montgomery Forces Inactive.
Meanwhile, Gen. Montgomery s
forces were inactive, officials said,
and the communique did not men,
ton this sector centered about the
Wadi Ell Akarit, 20 miles north of
Gabes
In Northern Tunisia around Med
iez-E El-Bab, so-called gateway to the
AXIS bridgehead of Bizerte and
Tunis. British 1st Army artillery
duelled savagely with enemy guns
and inflicted losses on concentra-
tions of motor transport and in
fantry.
British and French patrols also
were active in the north.
Both bombers and fighters sup
ported Allied ground troops in
Tunisia during the day, carrying out
extensive air operations. They at
tackled concentrations of Axis We
hicles and enemy airfelds behind
Marshal Erwin Rommel's front
The fighters maintained their
shuttle service in offensive sweeps
and patrols over the battle area
where the Americans fought toward
the sea and the British 9th Army
appeared to be poised for another
shattering blow at Rommel's army
north of Gabes.
Gen. Montgomery, who has never
lost a battle to Rommel in eight
months in Africa, has been prepar-
ing the new blow to drive his foe
back to Sfax with all the cunning
and foresight which marked his
previous drives.
80 Mortars Captured.
Gen. Pattons troops, in making
new progress east of Ell Guetar, cap
tured 80 of the mortars, which have
impeded their advance. and killed
or captured many Germans. Allied
headquarters announced yesterday.
For week some of the best Axis
mountain troops. literally supported
by German tanks and war planes,
had held the Americans to limited
local successes among the sharp.
rocky hills and the sandy canyons
with their thousands of hidden
mines.
With the French regaining Cap
Serrat, As miles west of Bizerte, and
British and Moroccan infantry edg-
ing the Germans back along the
road to Mateur, the northern coastal
sector of the Tunisian front was
furnishing a lively sideshow to the
struggle about to begin in the south.
This northern mountainous area
of few roads and heavily forested
slopes appeared likely to remain a
sideshoW, however. until Axis forces
have been squeezed INTO the north
ern part of their bridgehead.
Dive-bombers Blasted.
Gen. Pattons infantrymen in the
Ell Guetar area received prompt en-
couragement from American fighter
squadrons when group of ID to
20 German dive -bombers began
to harrass them. The American
fighters sent IA of the German
planes smoking to earth almost at
the feet of the infantrymen.
Associated Press correspondents
at the front in Central Tunisia
reported that Axis forces were being
strengthened both in the Ell Guetar
area and east of the American
forces in the Maknassy region
farther north.
There have been no official esti-
mates of Axis reinforcements from
Europe issued by African headquar-
ters for nearly two months, but con-
tinued Allied air attacks on enemy
conveys in the Sicilian Narrows in
dicate that Rommel is still being
literally supported by the Axis high
command. 1t was once estimated
that 1000 Axis troops landed daily
by boat and plane in North Africa
and that rate of reinforcement pre-
sumably still holds good.
On the basis of past statements
by high Allied officials, it can be
said that the enemy has 100000
or more men in Tunisia.