Evening star., 1943-04-15

THE EVENING
struck at the nearby Monferrato
Airf1eld, covering the landing area
and hangers with an even greater
load of augmentation bombs. Again
fires sprang up. Fortress gunners
shot down one Macchi 202 and one
Re-2001 of Is or more enemy planes
which tried to intercept the flight.
The third Fortress attack,
launched against the Ell .Aouina Air
drome, was met with heavy anti
aircraft fire and Is to 20 fighters
during the bombing run. The gun
ners destroyed seven Me-109s.
Enemy Aircraft Destroyed.
Two additional enemy aircraft
were destroyed by Spitfire fight
ers on offensive sweeps.
Concentrating on Axis airfields
in an effort to neutralize German
and Italian air forces for the re-
matnder of the Tunisian campaign,
Allied aerial commanders sent
waves of Raj Bisleys and French
bombers Tuesday night against La
Sebala, miles north of Tunis
Observers said fires dotted the field.
Axis transport columns again
came under Allied bomb sights. The
communique said number of We
hicles were destroyed and others
| in TO h4r
fighters again attacked Sicilian tar
gets last night.
The battle of Tunisia moved into
its bloodiest phase as Allied armies
deployed before Rommel's new de-
fense arc in front of Tunis and
Bizerte.
(Some unofficial observers in
London speculated that the next
Allied stroke might be a smash
northeastWard toward the Gulf
of Tunis from the Medjez-El-
| Bah or Bou Arada sectors to cut
the remaining Axis forces in two.
, Such a drive presumably would
be co-ordinated with heavy pres
sure from the south by the 9th
Army and from the northwest
| by the 1st ArmyD
Buildings Demolished.
Hurricane bombers attacked a
German battery yesterday east of
| Djedeida, itself IL miles northwest
of Tunis, and demolished three
buildings occupied by the gunners.
| Direct hits which started a large
fire were scored by Hurricanes on
an Axis motor convoy near erich
Ell Oued. miles northeast of
Medjez-El-B Bah
Spitfires circled the Bay of Tunis
three times looking for trouble, but
not an enemy fighter rose to chal-
lenge them.
Finishing off the day, two air
fields at Ste. Marie du Zit, midway
between Tunis and Enfidaville, and
one at Korba were attacked by
American, British and French
planes.
Allied ground successes yesterday
were valuable, but they were not
on the grand scale of the recent
sweep from the Gabes gap to the
north of Sousse.
1ntrenched on every vantage point
that could guard their northeastern
bridgehead, the enemy forces, with
heavy proportion of Germans in
the front line. were preparing for
fierce siege warfare.
With the Mediterranean behind
| them-and not very far behind
Rommel's troops were grouped at
the key passes into the bridgehead
along line leading from Enfidaville
to Djebel Bou Hadjar, 80 miles to
the southwest. and then to Cape
Serrat on the north coast
Enf1daville, astride the new front,
had the character of ''no-man's
land" while Djebibina, IT miles west
of Enfidaville, was drawn into the
front line of the battle
Contrary to reports abroad there
was no information available here
to indicate that Rommel already
had started to evacuate certain of
his forces. Heavily armed power
barges, which have been used since
December to bring in tanks and
supplies, could be marshaled for an
evacuation. it was pointed out, but
there was no evidence that this had
been done.
OF the 201 or more Axis aircraft
destroyed since Saturday, at least l34
were big transports of the type used
to haul fuel and supplies to Rom
mels troops. They also could be
used for evacuation of troops Seven
ty-three of these planes were de-
stroyed on the ground during Flying
Fortress raids on Sicilian airflelds
Tuesday, it was announced yester-
day.
The lost transports. it was esti-
mated, would be unable to carry
10000 tons of badly needed supplies
to Africa monthly if only one
round trip a day were made.
While remaining Axis air bases
in Africa are under almost con-
tinual attack by Allied air forces,
competent sources cautioned against
counting out German air power in
this theater too soon. The Ger
mans still can operate from fields
in Sisi Ahmed. Ferryville and Ma
teur in the Bizerte area, and La
Marsa. Ell Aouina, Megrine and
Djedeida in the Tunis region.
In the mountains south of Tunis
there are fields at Depienne, Ia
ghouan and Marie du Zit.
Because Sicily is only 80 miles
from the African mainland the Ger
man air force is able to use it for
bomber bases, concentrating fighter
planes on the Tunisian fields. Out
numbered and sometimes over
whelmed. the Germans still retain
certain amount of punch for