New longrange German U-boats, which Berlin says are capable of staying several months at sea, have appeared off the U.S. east coast, the Navy Department announced today.
THE STARS AND STRIPES
Daily Newspaper of U.S. Armed Forces in the European Theater of Operations
New York, N.Y.—London, England Monday, April 12, 1943
Axis Defense Folds in Southern Tunisia
8th Army Past Sfax,
Allies Moving East
To Take Kairouan
Americans, British, French Occupy Pichon,
Force Fondouk in Drive to Coast;
Prisoners Now Total 23,000
Allied armies were driving Rommel back on every important front in
Tunisia last night, while their warplanes smashed with increasing fury at the
retreating Axis columns and at lines of communications and supply.
With the capture of Sfax by the Eighth Army, the Axis defense of southern
Tunisia collapsed, and overwhelming Allied forces were closing in last
night on the port of Sousse, 60 miles north of Sfax, and on Kairouan, 30
miles inland. Through Kairouan, now menaced by Allied forces sweeping
eastwards toward the coast, columns of Axis troops were streaming in their
retreat before the Eighth Army.
The Eighth Army, sweeping on past Sfax, which it occupied at 8.15 o'clock
Saturday morning, was reported to be advancing with increasing speed,
spurred on by a message from the commander, Gen. Montgomery—" On
to Tunis ! " The desert army appeared now to be carrying out the last of
the three stages of the campaign which Montgomery set forth before the
Battle of the Mareth Line.
On the flank, meanwhile, American and British tank and infantry forces,
having captured Pichon and broken through the vital Fondouk Gap late
Friday, were sweeping down the flat road towards Kairouan, the Holy City of
Tunisia and the biggest communications point in the central area. Once they reach
Kairouan they will be only 30 miles from the port of Sousse, which is also the next
big city threatened by the Eighth Army, now some 60 miles to the south.
Yanks Trapped
By Foe Return
With Prisoners
Sweated Out Three Days
Behind Enemy Lines,
Then Took Hill
SOUTHERN TUNISIA, Apr. 8 ( P A )
—How an American infantry battalion, caught between the enemy lines for three
days without food or water, stuck through heavy artillery and mortar fire in their
hill position and finally captured 200 Italian prisoners was told today by a
grinning lieutenant and a tough sergeant. " We moved in on their flank and got
between their lines. It took us three days to find out who v/as in a hole—them or
us," said Sgt. Bradley E. Casey, 33, of Chicago, who has been in the regular
army ten years.
" We attacked them on the point of a horseshoe curve of a hill east of El
Guettar on Mar. 28," said 2/Lt. Cedric Lafiey, 24, of Enosburg Falls, Vt.
General's Jottings in Air Log
Describe Battle Over Antwerp
A U.S. BOMBER STATION, England,
Apr. 11—The story of how Brig. Gen. Frank A. Armstrong, of Nashville, N.C.,
helped save the life of his navigator during the raid on Antwerp last Monday
was told by Eighth Air Force headquarters today. Intelligence officers
gleaned the story from the General's air log—observations jotted down during
lulls in what some pilots said was the fiercest air fighting yet in the ETO.
A 20-mm. shell exploded in the nose of the B17, severely wounding the navigator,
Capt. Robert J. Salitrnik, of Alhambra, Cal.
While the attacks continued, smashing the main wing spar and starting a fire in
the cockpit. Gen. Armstrong grabbed a walk-around bottle and crawled forward
to give first aid to Salitrnik who was bleeding profusely from a leg wound.
Maj. James C. Wilson, of Bowling Green, Ohio, pilot of the ship, and other
members of the crew reported that Capt. Salitrnik was recovering in the hospital.
Bombers Sink
Two Jap Ships
Off Wewak Base
30 Tons of Bombs Dumped
On Ammunition Stores,
Shore Installations
ALLIED HQ, Southwest Pacific. Apr, 11—American heavy bombers struck
Wewak, key Jap base in northern Guinea, at dawn yesterday, dumping 30 tons of
bombs on the port, destroying a cargo and an ammunition ship and damaging
two others, today's communique reports. Big fires were left burning after a direct
hit had blown up an ammunition dump on shore, dock installations and antiaircraft
positions. The only Jap fighter encountered was shot down in flames, the
communique added.
Long-range fighters at dawn executed a sweep along the New Guinea coast,
strafing with cannon and machine-gun fire an enemy airdrome, a power house and
installations at Alexishaffen. In Madang harbor a power barge was sunk, and a
huge fire was started that was still burning three hours later. Heavy bombers, later
in the day, bombed and strafed the airdromein single attacks.
After daylight Allied medium bombers bombed and strafed ground installations
at Bogia. Two direct hits completely destroyed a battery of five heavy machineguns.
A nearby fuel servicing unit set surface craft ablaze.
Medium bombers successfully attacked enemy positions in Timor, Tanimbar
Islands, Aroe Islands and New Britain.
U.S. Lose 3 Ships
Forts Smash
Italian Cruisers
Two Italian heavy cruisers have been put out of action for the duration of the
North African campaign by the largest group of Forts ever to be employed in
any part of the world, it was announced yesterday at Allied Headquarters in North
Africa.
The Forts, under the command of Maj. Gen. J. H. (Jimmy) Doolittle, found the
Gorizia and the Trieste, heavy cruisers, each 10,000 tons, armed with 8-inch
guns, at La Maddalena harbor. Sardinia.
The result of the attack will not be known fully until photographs taken on the raid
have been studied. Naming of the Gorizia has aroused
considerable curiosity. This cruiser was reported torpedoed by a British submarine
in June, 1941. Possibly another vessel of the same type has been given the name.
This ruse has been adopted by the Germans in the past to conceal losses.
U-Boats Again Operating
Off East Coast of U.S.
WASHINGTON, Apr. 10—New longrange German U-boats, which Berlin
says are capable of staying several months at sea, have appeared off the U.S. east
coast, the Navy Department announced today.
The disclosure followed news that survivors of a U.S. merchantman, sunk* off
the coast early this month—the first since August—have been landed at Miami
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