Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1943-03-20
Stage Now SET
For Big Battle
Against Axis
Heavy Rain in North
And Dust Storms in
South Curb Activity
BY he Associated Press.

By he Associated Press.
ALLIED HEADQUARTERS IN
NORTH AFRICA, March 90
American infantry and armor
today organized their positions
at Gafsa and Ell Guetar, go miles
from Marshal Erwin Rommel's
coastal road lifeline, and set the
stage for what may be one of
the biggest battles of the Tu-
nissan campaign.
A heavy downpour which turned
the plains into sticky bogs too soft
for tanks kept motionless, how
ever the forces of 1t Gen. George
S. Patton, jr.. and dust storms at
the southern end of the front where
Gen. Sir Bernard l.. Montgomery
9th Army was poised before the
Mareth Line held activities at
minimum there.
Continuing storms which turned
northern airfields into sloppy strips
and dust storms in the south also
prevented the Allied air forces, now
welded into a mighty weapon under
one commander and one headquar-
tiers, from striking the crushing
blows Of which they are capable.
Such sweeps as were made in the
north today's Allied headquarters
communique said, we're carried out
by Allied flyers without meeting
single enemy plane. In the south
the western desert air force was
still looking for enemy tanks stuck
in the sand. The dust storms were
reported as bad as those in Egypt
and Libya.
Enemy's Position Described.
An Raj source today described
the enemy's position in Tunisia as
the shape of mans head stretch
ing down to the Mareth Line and
with Allied air forces gripping the
throat and ready to squeeze.
Allied fighters from one side are
now able to reach target at the
same time as bombers from the
other and give them protection.
This cooperation was gradually
stripping advanced Axis air fields
and maintaining clear supremacy
| in the air.
(The Algiers radio. in broad
cast recorded in London by the
Associated Press, said the 9th
Army won new positions east of
the Mareth Line after a bayonet
charge. The broadcast said pa
trolls were numerous in all sectors
70
pering Tunisian operations.
| Gen. Henri Giraud, the French
| commander in chief, was dis
closed by the Algiers radio to
have been present when the AL
| lied forces drove into Gafsa.
Gin a ceremony honoring Mos
lem soldiers at Maillot Hospital,
| Algiers, the Morocco radio re-
ported, Gen. Giraud said, Il am
convinced Gafsa marks the be-
ginning of an offensive which will
go on as far as Berlin" It quoted
him as saying Il was present at
the recapture of Gafsa. Realizing
the courage and valor of our
troops the Germans and Italians
left even quicker than they
came.O
AZ Miles in Two Days.
Continuing an advance which had
already carried them AZ miles in two
days toward their apparent goal at
Gabes, Axis supply port behind the
main German position in the Ma
reth area, the Americans battled
heavy rains and floods in the rough
mountain country.
Meantime, the German army in
Northern Tunisia under Col. Gen.
Jurgen Won Arnim apparently was
achieving local success with a di-
versionary attack designed to take
pressure off Rommel in the south.
The British LIST Army fell back 3
miles from Tamera, a mining town
As miles southwest of Bizerte, but
then was able to hold in stronger
positions against two infantry as
Saults.
1talian headquarters asserted
that Gen. Won Arnim's Axis
tSee AFRICA, Page A-4D