Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1943-01-25
y. S. Raid Follows Nazis' Taunt;
Threat TO RommeI Route Rises;
German Forces Quit Voronezh
Mobilization of
Americans Seen
In New Attack
&y the Associated Press,

lie brlIlSQ 6Lh army, dl0ed by
warplanes which included United
States bombers and fighters
striking from both east and west
pushed Marshal Erwin Rommel
farther On his way from Tripoli
today even as indications de-
veloped that Allied troops may
already threaten his escape route
along the Gulf of GabeS.
United States troops were Off
cially disclosed to have been in &C
ton at MaknaSsy, in Central Tu-
nisia only 33 miles from the Gulf
of Gabes, and the circumstances
suggested that the whole Axis STRAIT
egg for a union of the armies of
Marshal Rommel and Col. Gen.
Jurgen Won Armin might be i'm
periled.
Answering a haunting note
dropped on American lines-"Why
won't the Americans come out and
fight?"--United States soldiers
raided Maknassy and captured 80
prisoners, a spokesman reported at
Allied headquarters in North Africa.
Advance Continued.
This evidence that the Americans
have modified in some force more
than 100 miles south of the con-
tested highlands and the Ousseltia
Valley between Pont Du Fahs and
Kairouan developed as a Cairo COM
munique announced that British 9th
Army troops continued their ad-
vance to the west" from Tripoli
yesterday.
A German thrust in the Ousseltia
Valley was halted.
Marshal Rommels route of re-
treat. which Gen. Won Arnim is try
ing desperately to keep open, lacks
the natural barriers along the Gulf
of Gabes that it has in the noun
tains and desert wastes in other
Tunisian areas.
Another threat to Marshal Rom
mels forces appeared as it was an
nounced that Brig. Gen. Jacques
LeClerc's Fighting French troops
hurrying up from Equatorial Africa
had reached the Jebel Nefusa,
range of hills southwest of Tripoli,
and had only so more miles to go to
reach the Mediterranean.
A Fighting French communique
said: Our forward troops pene-
trated Jebel Nefussa. The fleeing
enemy is being pursued without
respite"
1t was considered possible that
British yanguards already had
speared into Tunisia.
Virtually all of Marshal Rommel's
forces-perhaps some 10000 to 10000
men-were reported in Tunisia and
the speed of their fight indicated
they might not even pause for a
stand at the Mareth Line, the sys-
tenn of defenses which the French
erected before the war some IS miles
west Of the Libyan border A Cairo
dispatch said most Of Rommels
forces already were behind the
Mareth Notifications.
"a British broadcast reported
by the Owl said rapid recon-
Nuisance units of the 9Th Army
had crossed Tunisia's eastern
frontier. The BIC cited reports
from North Africa as the source
for its announcement
Advance Continues.
"Our troops continued their ad-
vance to the west" said British
headquarters in Cairo, without
stating the specific extent of yes
terdays gains.
Following up Saturday night raids
on the docks at the Bizerte naval
base and on Axis vehicles on the
move east of Kairouan, allied flyers
bombed the Sousse harbor and an
airfield near Mendenine, so miles
from the Tripolitanian frontier.
AT least one ship was hit and
damage was done to the airfield, -
the communique said. One of a
small formation of enemy fighters
which attacked our bombers was
destroyed"
A spokesman said that between 25
and 80 Axis aircraft were believed
destroyed on the ground when two
waves of United States medium
bombers struck yesterday at the air.
field west of Mendenlne, into which
1t was thought that Marshal Rom
mel may be Withdrawing the re-
mainder of his ground and All
forces.
One Allied plane was reported
missing from yesterdays operations
but another previously reported miss
ing returned.
Zuara Is Attacked.
Allied airmen striking from the
cast attacked the port of Zuara, g.
miles west Of Of Tripoli, and ranged
es deep as so miles into Tunisia
to blast at Marshal Rommels COM
munlcatlons and airfield activities
An Axis merchant ship was reported
broken in two, another fired and {
destroyer damaged north of Sicily
during series of aerial sweep,
across the Central Mediterranean.
A Fascist submarine was declared
to have sunk large transport from
an Allied convoy.
Leading military observers herr
expressed belief that Marshal Rom
mel might hesitate to halt and Civ,
battle TO the 9th Army because o
the danger that the Allied force.
in Central Tunisia might drive
through to the coast and thus Gu
him of completely from Gen. vor
Arnir1.
Possibility that the Allies ever
now were preparing for such g
thrust was seen in AXIS radio reports
that a huge force OF American
troops was masSing at TebeSsa on
the Algerian TunlSian frontier
about AS miles west Of SfaX.
The suggestion that United States
forces were preparing to take a
major hand in the Central Tunlsian
sector was given color by a French
communique disclosing that an
American armored unit had inflicted
severe losses in an attack on an
enemy column in the Ousseltia re-
gion south of Pont du Fahs.