Evening star., 1943-04-12
Allies Take Sousse and Kairouan
|nMounting gPressureAgainstFo Foe;
III More Axis Planes Shot Down
1st Army Units
Knock Out 18
Enemy Tanks

ALLIED HEADQUARTERS IN
NORTH AFRICA, April 12.-The
British 9th Army entered Sousse
at $50 am. today in its rapid
push northWard along the Tuni-
sian coast, while 1st Army units
knocked out armored remnants
of the German Afrika Korps on
the plains northwest of Kairou-
an after the Allies had occupied
that city yesterday.
Field Marshal Erwin Rommels
men we're reeling under heavy blows
from both ground and. air forces
and they offered light opposition.
The Kairouan Plain engagement
took place as German tanks were
intercepted while attempting to
escape northward. Ten of them
were knocked out.
CA dispatch from Kairouan said
18 of a formation of 40 enemy
tanks were destroyed by a British
armored force in the battle to
clear the Kairouan Plain, and 20
Nazi anti-tank guns and 20 motor
vehicles also were wrecked. The
40-tank formation was described
as the rear guard of two German
armored divisions.)
The fall of Soussc leaves the en-
emy only two important ports in all
Africa-Tunis and Bizerte.
United States and British air
forces struck terrihcally again, leav-
ing scores of enemy vehicles scat
tered in Wreckage or in flames and
shooting down total of Al enemy
planes yesterday against loss Sof
IA of their own.
Planes DESTROYED.
American Lightnings caught an
other fighter escorted transport
formation crossing the Sicilian
Straits and destroyed 81 planes.
The End United States Army
Corps under 1t. Gen. George S.
Patton, jr., took Faid Pass without
opposition. adding another avenue
through the Central Tunisian noun
tain wall to the coastal plain pene-
trated Saturday through Fondouk
Pass.
American armor led the way
through Faid Pass-the same gate
way which Marshal Rommel used
for his abortive mid-February often
sive-and, pursuing 10 German
tanks northWard toward Kairouan,
captured II Germans.
The 9Th Army's advance-125
miles from the Wadi Ell Akarit line
in six days-was slightly impeded by
demolitions and difficult country,
but Gen, Sir Bernard L. Montgom-
ery's vanguards developed little
fighting in the Sousse area. The
enemy already had pulled back to-
ward the ridge running inland
from Envidaville, 81 miles north of
SousSe.
The enemy's new position ranges
40 miles inland along this ridge and
then turns northwest ward, extend
Ing 80 miles to the Mediterranean
coast near Cape Serrat, 35 miles west
of Bizerte. French troops recently
recaptured that cape.
Some 500 prisoners, mostly Ger
mans. were taken by 1t. Gen. K. A.
N. Anderson's LIST Army.
Enemy's Position Untenable.
After getting on to the green and
foWerdotted plain of Kairouan from
the Fondouk area, the 1st Army
made the enemys position there un-
tenable. Armored units. followed by
Infantry, spread out fanWise over the
plain and soon had blocked all roads
out of that Moslem holy city and
highway junction "a miles south
west of Sousse. which the Germans
had used as major air base.
The enemy, however. had aban-
Honed the town. Enemy tanks were
intercepted II miles to the northwest
and 1t was here that the battle with
Gen. Anderson's forces occurred.
German and Italian high COM
mandS. in COmmuniGues broad
cast from Berlin and Rome and
recorded by the Associated Press.
said Axis forces had withdrawn
from Kairouan and from the
port of SfaX. Military installa-
tions were said to have been de-
stroyed. The SfaX announce
ment was belated. Allied troops
occupied the port. IS miles south
of SOuSSe, SATURDAY..
(The Italians admitted prop
erty damage and casualties in
Allied air raids on Naples and the
Sicilian towns of Trapani and
Marsala, but declared IL of the
raiders were shot down.
Maj. Gen. JAMES H. Doolittle's
strategic air force again went into
action yesterday, getting direct hits
on four merchant vessels, sinking
one barge and hitting docks and
other installations in attacks on
Tunis and Sicilian ports.
Naval Base Hard Hit.
Photographic reconnaissance over
la Maddalena Harbor. Sardinia
where Flying Fortresses sank the
10,000-ton Italian cruiser Trieste
Saturday and heavily damaged the
sister cruiser Gorilla, showed that
the entire naval base was hard hit
with damage done to at least 80
buildings and docks.
Dispatches from Cairo and Malta
told of the aerial destruction of two
enemy supply ships, one in the Gulf
of Hammamet and the other off
Palermo, Sicily, and an attack by
bombers which left another sinking
tSee AFRICA, Page AID