Evening star., 1943-03-21
African Front

African Front
The United States now has a trinity
Of hard eggs holding commanding mill
tary positions on widely y-separated global
fronts. In China there is 1t. Gen Joseph
Stilwell, Vinegar Joe" In the South
west Pacific there is Admiral William F.
Halsey, who knocked the stuffing out of
the Japs around Guadalcanal. Now in
Tunisia there is 1t. Gen. Patton, hard,
profane, who fights to win and who has
sworn off smoking and drinking until
he sets foot in Tunis city Cheld now by
the Axis forces under Col Gen. Jurgen
Won Arnim). "Old Blood and Cuts" they
call Patton. He entered the Army as a
cavalry officer and was transferred to the
mechanical forces. For the tankmen his
philosophy is: Go forward. Always 90
forward. Go until the last shot is fired
and the last drop of gasoline is gone, and
then go forward on foot He COM
manded the American task force land
ing at Casablanca last November, when
he gave this order: I'VE shall attack
and attack until we are exhausted, and
then we shall attack again"
Last week the Allied high commander
decided to try this general on one of the
most important COM
Error Coused bat 81 G n m e t S
Neor Disoster available noW-com-
mander of the Amer
lean ground forces in Tunisia. They
had been in charge of Maj Gen. Lloyd
r. Fredendall, but he had suffered only
misfortune, which reached its climax in
the recent Rommel drive to the edge of
Algeria. 1t was disclosed last week by
a spokesman for the American forces in
Tunisia that an error in intelligence
contributed to the American loss of the
battle which let Rommel move so far
westward I'VE were convinced" a
spokesman said, that the Germans
would make their main effort at Pichon,
instead of further south as Faid, as they
did. For this reason a strong American
combat team was kept in the mountains
northwest of Pichon in order to counter
this thrust" So when Rommel hit
through Faid on February IA, little stood
in his way.
That is one of the prices of inexperi-
ence. For three weeks the Americans
have been heading back toward the
points in the Tunisian interior they gave
up when Rommel let go at them. On
Tuesday Patton became commander of
the Central Tunisian forces, which in
clude the 1st United States Armored Di-
vision and the 1st and 34th Infantry
Divisions. On Wednesday those troops
entered Gafsa without the loss of man.
Only scattered sman-arms fire greeted
American infantry approaching the
towns outskirts, after l55-mm how
itzers opened the assault by knocking
out an Italian artillery battery and waves
of American medium bombers pounded
the withdrawing enemy on congested
roads eastward. Engineers cleared the
way by making the minefelds innocuous.
The capture Of GafSa put Patton'S
forces 130 miles from the 9th Army,
prodding the Mareth Line, 100 miles
from the coastal town of SfaX and 80
miles from the coastal town of Gabes.
A day later the American forces entered
Ell Guetar, u miles east of GafSa At
El Guetar the roads from Sfax and from
Gabes meet. American troops assisted
by French forces at once headed along
the SfaX road toward Sened. % miles
from El Guetar. South of Gafsa a
French force working its way around
the vast salt marsh Of Chott Dierid is
approaching another road to Gabes. 1t
is period Of heavy rains of Central
Tunisia. and the soldiers who took FL
Guetar had often to wade through new
streams
Rommel now faces a trying time He
must decide whether to use his tanks
against the 9th
Rommel Now Army, which al the
In Touch Spot proper moment will
assault the Mareth
Line as it assaulted the FL Alamein Line
last October 23 or against the Patton
divisions A successful thrust by Gen.
Pattons forces in the Gabes direction
would compel Rommel either TO abandon
the Mareth stronghold or to take on at
the same time the 8th Army and the
Patton fighters.
In order to delay the final rendering
of the TunLsian account for as long as
possible, the Axis armies in Tunisia S
north last week continued the tactics
they have consistently followed-squeez-
ing the lst Army, which guards that sec
tor for the Allies out of its advanced
positions. During the past four months
the Axis has taken about 20 miles from
the Allies. Once the Allies held Te-
bourba and Mateur-eaSy places from
which to strike Bizerte and Tunis in pro-
pltious weather. From Tebourba they
have been showed back to Medjez-el- Bah
From Mateur they were showed back to
Sedjenane. from Sedjenane 10 Tamera
and last week they were pushed out of
Tamera Now the 1st Army is As miles
from Bizerte.
AS in all tropical regions, the weather
Is getting ready to play new role In
the Tunisian war. Next week will bring