The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-01-14
FRENCH DESTROY { AXIS PLANES
(Continued from Page D

l The neaVHSSI aeEldl dCI1V4Cy GOOEA place over Tripolitania where, ac- cording to a communique from AL lied headquarters in Cairo, Allied light bombers blasted Marshal Err win Rommel's positions at Wadi Zem Zemm, bombed and strafed Axis land conveys and supply bases and raided tt'e Axis East Tunisian port of Sousse.
 The scale of the Allied air blows was indicated by the announce ment that eight planes of the Mid- dlc East Command were missing.
 Land operations in Tunisia and Libya still were largely hamstrung by bad weather. Heavy Standstorms swept Tripolitania, while in Tunisia ground forces generally were begged down in quagmire.
 1 A German official news agency dispatch, broadcast by radio Berlin, said strong French forces had at tackled Axis positions on a wide front in several places among the mountains of south-central Tunisia.
 "On the southern sector of the front, fighting continued Wednes- day evening and increased this omrning," the dispatch said. How ever, an attack against the north- ern flank of German security forces failed, though carried out with strong tank support"
 The French announced that AXIS prisoners taken "in Tuesdays local action"-apparently in South-Cen- tral Tunisia-had risen to more than 200, of which 30 were Ger mans. and that much material and two guns had been captured.
 Earlier the French had reported that they had trapped an Italian force in a valley, and this might be the action to which they now re- ferred.
 Additionally, the French an nounced that prisoners had been taken in a surprise raid on the railway station at Sidi zarad.
 The steady ascent of American , and British air power was giving the Allies an offensive edge that may enable them to cmash the last Axis bridgehead in Afrika with he facility that the Eighth Army routed the Afrika Korps at Fl Ala mein.
 In a 24-hour period ending yester- day, Allied bombers, fighter-bomoers and fighting planes from North Africa and the Middle East, de. stroyed 51 Axis planes aground and | in combat, at the cost of one fighter
 Allied aircraft prowled the skies over North Africa and the Med!ter- ranean, attacking Castel Benito, lC miles south of Tripoi, Axis-held Tunisian bases, Axis land transport Axis positions east of Tripoll, ano objectives in Sicily, Crete and Lam- pedusa.
 The most convincing demonstra- ,, tion was the Flying Fortress raid on Castel Benito, where 19 Axis planes were destroyed. Fortress gunners shot down 19 of the 30 Messer' schmitts that attacked them as they were coming home.
 In North Africa, as in the desert air superiority was expected to pro vide the necessary offensive edge fol
 Allied ground forces to throw tht
 Germans and Italians into the sea In the desert, where Allied air force!
 were almost unchallenged, bombers and fighters had wrecked an meal
 culable amount of the Afrika korps , equipment and blasted apart its de- lenses, so the Eighth Army coulc sweep through. The Axis, of course, had the ad' vantage of nearby Sicilian bases from which to operate bombers to- ward Tunis and Bizerte, but if th'
 Allies could sweep out Axis fighter strength in Africa, operation oi bor / <ers from Sicily would be almos suicidal.
 There was still no indication wher the Eighth Army would open lt' final drive east of Tripoli against the remnants of the Afrika Korps It apparently was still bothered nS
 recurrent SandStormS.
 Mud, it seemed, was still holding
 the Allies up in Tunisia, although . the Germans radio Paris said thu British First Army had begun violen
 attacks. supported by American : tanks, between Ourrada and Goub' : ellrad, in the Fondouk- -Pichon area southwest of Sousse.
 ; Brig. Gen. Jacques LeClerc's Fight ing French forces from the Chad re- zion rolled on toward Tripoli iron somewhere in Fezzan. to the south.
 A dispatch from Algiers to Madrid
 said that his camel corps hat
 swooped down on another isolated
 Italian outpost, and surprised tht
 garrison so completely that 1t sur
 rendered with almost no fighting. A dispatch from La Linea. Spain
 said British armada, including tht
 battleships Nelson and Rodney, eigh
 destroyers and eigh corvettes, sailed I from Gibraltar before dawn yester' day, presumably into the Mediterra ] mean.