The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-01-25

4HNAHiAU IIOnLleF WeIe lhSncu Dy
 tons Of high explosives and in-
 sendiaries.
 The exact location of the British
 tanguard rushing west from Trip
 ill was not reported but was bee
 ieved to be approaching the Tu-
 llann frontier. It was possible that
 reconnaissance forces had already
 tossed that line at some points.
 The rapid movement of the Bri-
 iish 9th army west of Tripoh and
 he sending into battle of larger British Allied units in Tunisia was
 felt Co indicate that the Allied con1-
 mand hoped to allow Marshal Er-
 win <.oii1mel no breathing spell
 lii which to organize his forces for
 . bitter-end stand in the Tunisian
 sector.
 A communique of the middle east < erti command said Gen. Sir Bernard
 Montgomerys Eighth Army contin-
 ued their advance westward from Tripoli yesterday while Allied < Eiehter- r-bomber planes attacked
 small shipping which attempted to
 escape from Zuara, GA miles west
 of Tripol and 3l miles east of the X Ttlnisian frontier.
 Authoritative quarters here had
 not confirmation of reports in Lon- { don that patrols of the Eighth Army had crossed the TuniS1an frontier
 last night.
 Broadcast Complaint
 Radio Rome complained in 8
 broadcast that there were IS Brit
 lsh planes in action west of Tripoli
 for each Italian plane.
 N However, dispatches from the
 front said the Germans were ot- fering stiff fighter resistance in an < attempt to cover Rommel's flight. \ Today'S middle eastern command 7 communique reported big scale aerial ~ attacks on the Axis landing grounds
 at Ben Gardane, 20 miles inside < Ttinisia, and Medenine, 40 miles
 west-northwest of Ben Gardane. A : Junker.e8 dive bomber was shot
 down by fighter r-bombers at Gar- < dane and damage was inflicted on
 grounded planes. Fires were started at Medenie by light bombers. z Both ghter-bombers and light
 bombers attacked dispersed vehicles
 in the frontier area.
 Bomber planes, attacking Palermo 2 slIarbor, chief port of Sicily, Sat- a urday night started fires. Other planes, sighting Q south bound enemy convoy north of Sicily, : on the way to the Axis held Tunis- 1, ian coast with achievements and : supplies, wrecked two enemy nler- chantmen end scored a direct bomb ! hit on an escorting destroyer. ! One of the merchantmen explod- , ed and broke in two, the other was 2, last seen burning furiously. \ Intruder planes attacked shipping ' off the Tunisian coast, targets in . Sicily, and vehicles on the Tunistan ! coaSoal road.
 ' Fighter-bombers, attacking the { Sicillan south coast yesterday, SCOT . ed hits on railroad tracks and build- 2 lngs.
 only two planes failed to return \ from all middle east command op- ! sraticns.
 Z OM the Tunisian front proper, the ~ Germans sought desperately to hold z and widen the corridor along the < East Coast on which Ron1nnel soon Y will depend for his life as he att < tempts to join forces with the Axis \ army of Tunisia.
 Germans in heavy attacks forced Y the French to withdraw from the 5. Bou DabouS hill, on the 50-mile :. stretch of the front extending south
 eastward from Bou Aradia, 40 miles \ south of Tunis, to Kairouan. z But toward the southern end of x tho stretch, which extends along the 7 Ousseltia Valley, American tanks ' aided French troops to inflict severe 7 losses on attacking German tanks, ! Q French communique announced. Tn other sectors, German counter ! attacks were repulsed, the commit nique said, and 1t was added that
 all German parachutiSts dropped ]. behind the Allied lines during the Z past week had been rounded up {. after doing only insignificant dam < age.
 z Wreckage Dynamited British Navy specialist parties . were dynamiting wreckage to clear ' TripoN harbor and Allied ships z were already streaming toward the '. port, only 270 miles from Italian \ Sicily, while Allied planes took over | the Castel Benito airdrome and ' other air bases in the Tripoli area. v American North Africa headquar- Z ters announced that United States < army planes had shot down 21 !. enemy planes Saturday for @ loss of Y only seven, to maintain their steady < three-to-one ratio over the Axis air s forces.
 The Germans lost 19 Messer- \ schmitt planes. and IS more were Z. damaged, in trying to intercept a 7. force of flying fortreSses and light z ming fighters which heavily bomb- 2 ed BiZerte. Not a single American