Evening star., 1943-01-05
Supplies by Sea
Reported Aim if
Flight Is Cut Off
U. S. Planes Hammer
Major Nozi Targets
On Tunisiun Front
BULLETIN.

LONDON tH).-Ihe Russians
in new special communique
tonight announced the recap
ture of four key cities in the
lower Don and In the Cau-
casuS, marking further impor-
tant German Withdrawals in
these sections, according to a
broadcast heard by the Soviet
monitor. The large city of
Nalchik and the strategic rail
center of Prokhladnaya just
north of it in the mid-Cau-
casus were won back by the
advancing Red Army, and in
the lower Don region Tsimly-
anskaya on the river and Mo-
rozovskaya to the north on
the railway Stalingrad-Lik-
haya also fell to the Russians,
the broadcast said.
Earlier Stories on Page Ally
BY the Associated Press.
With the entire Nazi campaign
in the Caucasus threatened with
collapse, Adolf Hitler was re-
ported today to have ordered the
German armies on that front to
hold at all costs, even If the Rus
slams cut off their northern "eS-
cape corridor" through Rostov.
Advices reaching London-thus
far without confrmation-said the
German plan now was to supply the
Axis Caucasus Army by sea if land
communications failed. The Nazis
were reported massing a feet of all
available ships in the Black Sea to
carry supplies to Novorossisk.
Such strategy was regarded in
London as in line with the policy
I the Germans followed at Stalingrad,
where % divisions were left to hold
on as best they could in encircle-
ment.
New Blows in Tunisia.
While the war in Russia verged
more sharply toward a major dis
aster for the Germans, dispatches
from Allied headquarters in North
Africa reported that United States
Army planes struck effective new
blows in support of French and
American ground troops in Southern
Tunisia, bombing railroad yards at
Kairouan and targets at Cherichera.
six miles northeast of Fondouk.
! The Allied communique said
French headquarters reported that
/ II to IS enemy tanks were de-
stroyed in the Axis attack Sunday
in the Fondouk area. 1t said the
French, whose lines stopped the
enemy thrust, then counter-at-
tackled and inflicted casualties
on the enemy"
The Fondouk area is about 20
miles southwest of Kairouan, which
is 35 miles inland from the Eastern
TuniSian port of Sousse.
American bombers and their
escorting fighters shot down four
German planes in the days fighting
and suffered the loss of one Boston
bomber and one fighter, advices to
headquarters said.
In the north bad weather contin-
ued to keep the opposing armies in
active.
No Aerial Opposition.
The aerial attack on Kairouan was
made by the Boston 8-25 Billy
Mitchell bombers supported bv Cur.
tlss P-40s. No aerial opposition was
encountered.
Boston A-20s, also escorted bv
P-4Os, ran into German Messer-
schmitts, however, on the Cheri-
chera attack and it was here that
the bomber and fighter were lost.
an air force spokesman said.
He added that B-26 Martin
Marauders-on mission whose ma
ture he did not disclose-shot down
two antiquated Messerschmitt 109s.
which attempted to intercept the
bombers, and damaged a third.
In fighter sweeps over the South
ern TunlSian front P-40s DESTROYED
a Junkers SO and another Messer-
| Schmitt l09