The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-01-23


 trucks and troops.
 Beyond the border lay the old French Mareth line of forts, Ben Gardane, 20 miles inside Tunisia, Medenine, 48 miles west of Ben Gar dane, and Cabes, 45 miles north of Medenine, the first big enemy base and anchor point of the corridor to the north.
 The Italians once pretentious African empire was for practical purposes gone.
 Only 300 miles by land separated the forces of Montgomery and the American Fifty Army, the British First Army and strong French forces in Tunisia. Only 200 miles sepa- rated them by air, and American and British planes from Africa and Tripolitania overlapped in an eter- nal pounding of the fleeing Afrika Korps.
 Rommel'S ultimate plan preSum- ably was to flee to northern Tunisia and join forces with Col. Gen. Hans Arnim in holding a small bridge- head encompassing Tlnis and Bi1erte. If he could get there, the two Axis forces might total 150,000 men. The Allies were believed to have two or three times that many.
 At best, 1t was believed, the Axis planned to fight only a delaying action in northern Tunisia, to give the Germans time to prepare their European defenses before the Allies swarm on to the continent.
 TripoN, besides being @ great sym bolic victory, was of great potential benefit to the Allies. It has a mag niflcent harbor, presently clogged with wrecked ships sunk by Amer ican and British bombers. Great Castel Benito airdrome, 10 miles south of Tripoli, will give the Allies a nearby base for operations against the Axis in Tunisia.
 T~ Radio Morocco said the Axis re- treat was now complete rout.
 The Germans and Italians were understood to have blown up many military installations in Tripoli be- fore they fled west toward Tunisia, with bombing and machine gunning American and British planes tiock- ing over them like sea gulls.
 Reconnaissance reports said most of the Afrisa Korps was across the border, and for all practical pur- poses the sun had set on Benito Mussolinis dream of an Italian ein- pire. One hundred miles or less ot barren coastline was left the 1tal- ians. and they, with their NaN al- lies were fleeing 1t without thought of Tight.
 If the Italian people knew any thing about the disastrous end oi their empire, they learned 1t by disobeying their masters and listen- ing to the Allied radio. Dispatches from Bern indicated that Italian newspapers had not mentioned even that TripoN was Ynenaced.
 Dispatches from Algiers, via Ma drid, said the German and Italian staffs of the Afrika Korps had g rendezvous in Medenine, 68 miles 1 inside Tunisia, and well behind the Mareth line, along the border where the Afrika Korps was ex' pected to make some sort of stand Marshal Erwin Romnlel, command CT of the Afrika Korps, was re- ported to have fled to Medenine ( week ago.
 A Middle Eastern Command com muniuue yesterday reported a col ulnn of the Eighth Army south oi Tripoli. Observers believed this col ulnn had bypassed Tripoli and spec on west, with the intention of cut ting oil part of the Afrika Korpi before 1t reached the border.
 Other dispatches hinted at { much more ambitious plan. Dts' patches from Anglers said Brig. Gen Jacques Leclerc's Fighting French forces from the Chad region wer' now bearing northwest, in an ap' parent attempt to cut in behind the Mareth line.
 United Press Staff Correspondent Donald Coe, with Col. Edson Rant paratroops in Ttlnisia, reported tha' hard-boiled American and French forces were holding the Allied right flank in southern Tunisia.
 "Soon they may be in the biggest fight of their lives," Coe reported
 The implication was that tn' l