Current Events March 31; BRITISH EIGHTH ARMY CAPTURES SEDJENANE IN NORTH AFRICA CAMPAIGN / NIGHT RAIDS BATTER BERLIN / SOVIETS SMASH GERMANS IN DONETZ BASIN / DANISH WORKERS REVOLT / U.S. TRUCKS AT HOME ON THE RUSSIAN FRONT / U. S. PLANE HITS JAPANESE DESTROYER IN SHORTLAND ISLANDS:

                  The Portsmouth Herald

PORTSMOUTH, N. H., WEDNESDAY EVENING, MARCH 31, 1943

British Fighters Sweep On;

Capture Oudref, Sedjenane

Swift Pursuit Takes Place

Despite New Nazi Defenses

Airdrome Near Sfax

Hit By Allied Planes

Allied Headquarters in North Africa, March 31 (AP)

The British Eighth army has captured Oudref, 12 miles

north of Gabes and directly in the Gabes gap, and the

British First army in the north has taken Sedjenane, an

Allied headquarters communique announced today.

The sweep of Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery's forces

in chasing Marshal Erwin Rommel northward also took

Metouia, eight miles north of Gabes, in its net.

The pursuit was taking place, the communique said,

despite the hastily erected defenses that had been encountered.

The Americans of Lt. Gen. George S. Patton, Jr., battering their way

eastward into Rommel's flank from their Gafsa base, continued their

advance through minefields, the communique announced.

Prisoners were taken in the smash through Gen. Jurgen von Arnim's

northern positions.

The recapture of Sedjenane marked up an advance of nearly 14 miles

for the British from Djebel Abiod. Sedjenane is only about 35 miles from

Bizerte, the Tunisian naval base.

Allied air power continued to be exerted strongly, the communique

said—following up the announcement of the British and American

air forces yesterday that it would follow "non-stop annihilation tactics"

once Marshal Rommel's lines break

Light bombers, fighters and fighter-bombers continuously attacked

concentrations of Rommel's troops and vehicles and

made a severe attack on La Fau-connerie airfield in Patton's

Maknassy sector, the communique said.

Light and medium bombers from the desert air force also

made a heavy attack on El Maou airdrome to the north near Sfav.

Night bombers were reported particularly active in the North where

they attacked enemy defense positions.

       THE STARS AND STRIPES

Daily Newspaper of U.S. Armed Forces in the European Theater of Operations

                     London, England Wednesday, March 31, 1943

Twin Night Raids

By RAF Batter

Berlin and Ruhr

Double Force Loses 33;

Fires Are Started in

Reich Capital

Germany's anti-aircraft defenses, already strained by repeated heavy blows

from American and RAF bombers, face a new threat—twin rajds, in force, at

widely separated objectives.

The new technique, made possible by the growing strength of the Allied air

forces, was demonstrated Monday night when one heavy force of RAF and

Empire bombers dumped tons of high explosives on Berlin—while another large

force lashed at the important railway junction town of Bochum and other

objectives in the industrial Ruhr.

Soviets Smash

German Attacks

Along Donetz

Heavy Fighting Flares

On Three Sectors

Of Front

MOSCOW, Mar. 30 (UP)—Renewed activity sprang up in three main sectors

of the Russian front today. At the same time, Russian troops broke three attacks

a: different points on the Severny-Donetz and forced the Germans to retire after

inflicting heavy losses.

Heavy lighting for the river crossings along the middle course of the Severny-

Donetz, where the main bridgeheads are littered with German corpses, is still continuing.

Denmark Scene

Of New Revolt

Danes Join in Resistance;

Yugoslav Guerrillas

Increase Forays

Danish workers were reported yesterday to have joined the growing wave of

resistance and sabotage sweeping German- controlled Europe, while in Yugoslavia

guerrilla warfare grew to such a pitch -that the Axis was reported rushing

fresh reinforcements for the five divisions now tied down there.

In Denmark, a machine shop was bombed in Copenhagen Mar. 10: a factory

making uniforms for the German army was-set afire by five men Mar. 21

U.S. Trucks Bucking Mud

All Along Russian Front

MOSCOW, Mar. 30 (AP)—American motorized equipment is receiving its

severest test of the war in the mess of mud and slush which the whole Russian front

is becoming. Last year some American jeeps were

used in the spring fighting, but there were few heavy American trucks in action on

the Russian front. Now 50,000 trucks and 20,000 jeeps are in use. Russian

Generals frankly admit that American equipment bore the main burden in the

offensive southwest of Stalingrad, on the Don and in the Ukraine.

Russian drivers say the American trucks will " go everywhere—so far," and that

even if they are "foreigners" they are making themselves at home here."

U.S. Plane Hits

Jap Destroyer

ALLIED HQ. Southwest Pacific, Mar. 30—After destroying five to seven Jap

seaplanes in a low-level attack on an enemy base in the Shortland Islands.

Lockheed Lightnings and Corsair fighters in a. strafing attack set on fire a Jap

destroyer on the way home, today's official communique reports.

Three feet of one of the attacking planes wings were sheared off by the

destroyer's mast.

Current Events March 30, 1943; BRITISH EIGTH AMY, NEW ZEALAND TROOPS CAPTURE TOWNS; ROMMEL FLEES / R.A.F. BRAVES WEATHER FOR SMASH AT BERLIN:

      The Wisconsin State Journal

                           MADISON, TUESDAY, MARCH 30, 1943

Allies Drive Through Gabes

Mareth Line Broken,

Axis Forces Mauled,

Rommel Flees North

By VIRGIL PINKLEY

(United Press Staff Correspondent)

ALLIED HEADQUARTERS, North Africa —OJ.R)— Tba

British Eighth army, paced by veteran New Zealand troops, has

seized the key Tunisian towns of Gabes and El Hamma and has

pushed Marshal Erwin Rommel's battered Airika korps still

farther north, despite stiff Axis reargard resistance.

The communique issued today by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower's

headquarters said that a total of 8,000 prisoners had

been takea in the last 10 days. Allied fighters again tvere re-

relentlessly attacking enemy communication lines and American,

British, and French forces continued to edge forward in cen-

tral and northern Tunisia.

RAF Defies Weather

for Smash at Berlin

LONDON" —(U.P.)— British bombers in strong force Monday night

flew through some of the worst weather they had faced in many

weeks to-hammer home the second heavy raid on Berlin in 48 hours,

rekindling great fires which lighted up the skies over the German

capital, the air ministry announced today.

The Royal Air Force lost 21 bombers in the Berlin raid and 12

more in supplementary attacks on war targets in the Ruhr, which

apparently constituted one of the heaviest broadside operations ol

the war.

In addition to the murky clouds and icing conditions which impeded

the big four-engined bombers, they ran into strengthened German

defenses — night fighters, anti-aircraft fire, and clusters of

searchlights—which combined to exact, the heaviest toll on a raid

ing fleet in months!

apparently constituted one of the

heaviest broadside operations of

the war.

In addition to the murky clouds and icing conditions which impeded

the big four-engined bombers, they ran into strengthened German

defenses — night fighters, anti-aircraft fire, and clusters of

searchlights—which combined to exact, the heaviest toll raiding fleet in months.

 

Current Events March 29, 1943; MARETH LINE COLLAPSES AS AXIS RETREATS / NAVY ROUTES JAPANESE FLEET IN ALEUTIONS / BOMBING RAID ON ST NAZIAR IS FOLLOWED BY HEAVY RAID ON BERLIN / SPRING THAW BRINGS EXTENSIVE OPERATIONS BY GERMANS AND RUSSIANS IN ON KHARKOV FRONT:

  THE RACINE JOURNAL-TIMES

               RACINE, WIS., MONDAY AFTERNOON, MARCH 29, 1943.

Mareth Line Collapses; Axis Retreats

British Smash

Defenses Along

25-Mile Front

Rommel's Men Race

For Gabes; Americans

Drive Toward Sea

ALLIED IIEADQUARTERS.

North Africa.—(UP) — Allied

warships have joined in the b a t t l e of Tunisia, subjecting

t h e Gabes area to a heavy shelling as the land forces

pressed in toward the base from the south and west it

was revealed today.

(By The Associated Press

The Mareth line defenses of Marshal Erwin Rommel in

southern Tunisia have collapsed under the smashes of

Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery whose British Eighth

army has broken through on a 25-mile front leaving only

ragged edges of resistance at either end, Allied headquar-

ters dispatches announced today.

With the Germans and Italians rapidly withdrawing

their 80,000-man army from southern Tunisia, a race ap-

peared to be under way for Gabes, 20 or 30 miles to the north,

where the Germans w e r e reported plowing up

their airfields,

Plan War Action Against Japs,-

Navy Routs Fleet in Aleutians

WASHINGTON.—(UP)—More vigorous action in t h e United Nations'

Pacific war against J a p a n was believed to be foreshadowed

today with disclosure that military leaders from that area conferred

with war planners in Washington. The conferences were attended

by officers from the Hawaiian, South Pacific and Southwestern

Pacific commands, the war department said.

"The meetings were arranged by t h e joint chiefs of staff to aquaint

the commanders in the Pacific with the

policies and plans decided upon at the recent

Casablanca conference which concerned the future

action in which their theaters will be involved,"

it said.

The conferees included Lieut. Gen. Delos C.

Emmons, commander of army forces in Hawaii;

St. Nazaire Raid Follows

Heavy Assault on Berlin

LONDON —CD— R A F bombers

resumed their assaults on German submarine bases last night, after

t h e greatest raid of the war on Berlin Saturday night, by blasting

t h e base at St. Nazaire with a "concentrated attack," the air

ministry announced today.

Two bombers did not return from the S t Nazaire raid, which

w a s carried out in considerable s t r e n g t h and a d d e d new damage to

a U-boat haven which has been a t t a c k e d often a n d h e a v i l y i n the

past.

Squadrons of bombers, escorted by fighters, crossed and recrossed

t h e southeast coast this morning, hinting at a continuation of t he

intensive blows directed at Germany and her satellites on, t he

continent during the weekend.

                                              Nazis Raid Norwich.

The German radio meanwhile announced that German bombers,

r e t a l i a t i ng for t h e S a t u r d a y night RAF raid on Berlin a n d a daylight

r a id yesterday by American Fortresses and Liberators on t h e r a i l road

yards at Rouen, France, smashed at Norwich, England, during t h e night.

Reds Wipe Out

Nazi Wedge on

Kharkov Front

Spring Thaws Halt

Extensive Operations

In All Sectors

MOSCOW—(U.P)—Russian troops

for the second time in 24 hours, wiped out a G e r m a n wedge in t h e ir

lines on t h e Kharkov front today while comrades to t h e n o r t h seized

four hamlets in t h e defense ring around Smolensk.

T h e r e was no soviet confirmation of t h e German claim t o have

r e c a p t u r e d Sevsk, 85 miles northwest of Kursk. At last Russian

r e p o r t s a fortnight ago, t h e Russians were fighting west of Sevsk.)

The fighting in Russia everywhere was on a diminished scale

as spring thaws turned roads into quagmires and streams overflowed

their banks, inundating fields and low-lying areas. The mid-day

communique prefaced its break' down of the fronts with the an-

nouncement that there were '' no substantial changes" on any of them.

                                                 Trapped in Flank Move

Current Events March 28, 1943; ENTIRE RUSSIAN FRONT AT STALEMATE / NEW OFFENSIVE BY ALLIES AT TUNSIA / AMERICAN BOMBERS RAID NEW JAPANESE BASE AT WEIWAK ON NEW GUINEA:

        U.S. FORCES LAUNCH

        NEW TUNISIA ATTACK

   LONG BEACH INDEPENDENT

                  Long Beach, California, Sunday, March 28, 1943

RUSSIAN FRONT IS STALEMATED

Savage But Indecisive Fighting Rages

Along Entire Soviet Front Sectors

MOSCOW, March 27.—(TP)—Savage, but indecisive fighting

raged tonight on the Russian battlefronts.

The Soviet midnight communique announced tlierc had been* no

material changes in positions during the day.

In the Belgorod sector, north of Kharkov, the Germans launched

a fierce attack, and after bitter fighting succeeded in driving a

\vedge; into the Russian positions.

But the Soviets counter attacked before the Germans could

consolidate their gains. The Germans were forced to fall back to

their original line before the day, ended.

Americans Reported to Have Made Good

Progress In Early Stages of Big Push

ALLIED HEADQUARTERS, North Africa, March 27.—(TP)—

Front line dispatches from Central Tunisia said tonight that

United States infantry forces have begun a new offensive north

of Fdid Pass in the direction of Fondouk.

The American a t t a c k was launched early this morning.

The Yanks are reported to have made excellent progress in the first

hours oE the smash, hut more details were not available.

The British Eighth Army, meanwhile, has pushed forward to Marshal

Rommel's main defense line in the Mareth battlefront.

Radio Berlin acknowledged that the Axis has been thrown back.

New Jap Base Raided

ALLIED HEADQUARTERS,

Australia, March 27.—(TP)— General

MacArthur's headquarters announced today a smashing blow by

Allied bomber planes on the new Japanese air and sea base of Wewak.

New Guinea.

The Allied planes flew back and forth across the airfield, town and

harbor of Wewak for three hours, dropping hundreds of bombs, including

500 and 1000 pounders. A 4000-ton cargo ship in the

harbor was hit by two heavy bombs and damaged severely.

All planes returned safely in spite of heavy anti-aircraft fire

Current Events March 27, 1943; ALLIES LOCKED IN BITTER BATTLE ALONG MARETH LINE AS THE DRIVE CONTINUES NEAR COAST

            KINGSPORT NEWS

                                KINGSPORT, TENN., SAT., MAR. 27, 1943

U. S. KEEPS ROMMEL PINNED TO COAST

EIGHTH ARMY

Inches Ahead

Under Fire

British Infantry

Slowly Gaining

At Mareth Line

Allied Headquarters in North

Africa—AP—Infantry of the British Eighth Army inched slowly

forward into fortifications of the Mareth Line under a hail of gunfire

Friday while American forces '70 miles away fought grimly to

keep Marshal Erv/in Rommel's flanked pinned to the Tunisian

coast.

The seventh night of Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery's attack

on the deep Mareth belt of minefields and pillboxes backed up by

concentrations of armor and artillery found the British ar.d the

enemy still locked in a struggle reminiscent of the first World

War's many "battles of position, and attrition."

                                                         News Lacking

   THE STARS AND STRIPES

Daily Newspaper of U.S. Armed Forces in the European Theater of Operations

London, England Saturday, March 27, 1943

British Gain New Ground in Mareth Line

Yanks Hold

Heights East

Of Maknassy

Location of New Gains

Undisclosed; Rommel

Attacks Dwindle

Battering down fierce enemy resistance,

Gen. Montgomery's Eighth Army, infantry has won new ground

in the Battle of the Mareth Line, it was officially announced last night at

Allied Force Headquarters. The six-day struggle against the

Axis defenses in the line apparently had not yet reached anything like a

decision, but the ferocity of Rommel's midweek counter-attacks had fallen off,

it was reported.

There has been no official information for two days concerning the desert column

which passed around the southern extremity of the Mareth Line to reach a

points eight miles from El Hamma, but this was not considered to be any sign

of an Allied failure there. Correspondents were forbidden to speculate about the

movements.

Yanks Hold Firm

Yanks Hold Firm

On the other side of the battle area American forces were holding their gains

in the heights overlooking the coastal reaches east of Maknassy and, according

to some unconfirmed reports, had made new though small advances.

The main part of the Tunisia battle still was ahead, it was apparent. Informed

military observers in Lonon estimated the maximum strength of the-Axis within the

quadrilateral area bounded by Gabes, Marech, Matmata and El Hamma at

approximately 80,000 men. The German forces—including the 15th and 21st

Panzer Divisions—were estimated at " 40,000-plus " and the Italians around

" 40,000-minus."

Rommel has thrown into the battle of the Mareth Line almost the whole of his

armor, Morocco radio said, while " Gen. Montgomery so far has engaged only a

small portion, by comparison, of his armor."

Drive Near Coast

The exact location of the new advance by the Eighth Army was not disclosed,

but it was presumed to be in the area of the Wadi Zigzou, near the Mediterranean

coast, where the British troops established a bridgehead under fearful

handicaps early in the drive, only to lose it again when Rommel's forces made their

swift and concentrated counter-attack.

Whether the new advance took the "Eighth Army across the wadi, or whether

this natural defense still remains to be crossed, was not clear. In the fierce fighting

there earlier in the week—fighting which brought British troops against the

Germans and Italians in hand-to-hand, bayonet-to-bayonet combat—Rommel

was reported by Algiers radio to have lost at least 40 of the 100 tanks which he

hurled into the conflict.

Current Events March 26, 1943; DUEL FOR MARETH POSITIONS IN AFRICA CONTINUES / SOVIETS GAINING IN HEAVILY FORTIFIED ARIES OF SOMELENSK / NAZIS FIRE ON ITALAIANS SURRENDING TO YANKS / CHINESE GUERILAS AND AMERICANS AND MEN OF INDIAN ARMY SCOUT OUT BURMA ROAD:

     THE STARS AND STRIPES

Daily Newspaper of U.S. Armed Forces in the European Theater of Operations

                           London, England Friday, March 26, 1943

Heavy Guns in Duel for Mareth Positions

Yanks Gain Control

Of Important Heights

In Advance to Coast

Americans Narrowing Rommels' Corridor,

Dearth of News on Fighting in line

Recalls Silence Before Alamein

Heavy guns of the Eighth Army and the Afrika Korps were reported

last' night to be engaged in a terrific duel for control of positions in the

Mareth Line, while farther north American forces inched ahead against

strong enemy opposition in the drive towards the Tunisia coast from

Maknassy and El Guettar. The Americans were said to be in control of

the vital heights overlooking the coastal plain.

The situation in the Mareth Line was confused. Axis sources claimed that

Gen. Montgomery's bridgehead near the coas^had been wiped out and that

his flanking movement around the southernmost extreniity of the line had

been stopped, while Algiers radio reported that the British had forced a

second bridgehead in the coastal area and other gains had been held.

A British military commentator in London emphasized that the Allied

setback in the Mareth battle on Wednesday was no cause for gloom, since

" it took us nine days to get through at El Alamein—and I don't think we

need to weep over this retreat."

The Allied tactics, he said in an optimistic vein, had forced Rommel to

split his armor into four units: (1) The Maknassy road; (2) the El Guettar

road; (3) southwest of El Hamma to meet the British flanking force, and

(4) the Mareth Line positions. Furthermore, he said, the Allies' aerial

superiority is mounting daily.

Soviet Armies

Near Smolensk

In Dorogobush Suburbs

After Forest Battles

With Germans

MOSCOW, Mar. 25 (UP)—Russian

troops closing in on Smolensk from the north and east are advancing through

some of the most heavily-fortified ground in the world. Despite the difficulties they

are facing, Red Army communiques said tonight, they have reached the outskirts

of Dorogobush, last major German defense position before Yartsevo.

Terminal of a branch line of the Smolensk railroad, Dorogobush lies 35

miles north-east of Smolensk and 25 miles

east of Yartsevo.

Another Russian column has already by-passed Yartsevo on the north and has

occupied seven more inhabited localities around Dukhovshina, which lies a few

miles north-west of Yartsevo.

                                                       Fight Through Swamps

Nazis Fire on Italians

Surrendering to Yanks

WITH U.S. FORCES, Central

Tunisia, Mar. 25 (AP)—Forty Italian

soldiers who came forward to surrender to the American force near

Maknassy were immediately fired on by a German unit on their right, an

informed source revealed today. " I am unable to tell you the result

of this action or the number of prisoners taken by us from this

group, but I can say that we regard this firing on Italian troops by the

Germans as highly significant," the informed source said.

Guerrillas in Burma

In every country occupied by the Axis their troops are sitting on a powder, keg,

and the keg is labeled " Guerrillas."

Burma is no exception. Ten days ago the people of Paoshan,

a city- on the Burma Road which the Japs have long tried to capture, turned out to

watch the spectacle of a Chinese guerrilla scout leading into the city an

American airman in torn and bloodstained trousers and a party of 31 officers

and men of the Indian Army.

The story of these men's escape to free China is told by a Chinese war correspondent,

Norman Soong, who himself escaped from Hong Kong earlier in the

war. Soong cabled: " This strange conglomeration of men made up the latest

group of Allied soldiers to be rescued by Chinese guerrillas from Japanese

occupied Western Yunnan. Each man testified to the daring and prowess*of the

guerrillas operating between and behind the Japanese lines, and also joined with

the American airman, Lieutenant Creg Carpenter, in paying tribute to the courage,

resourcefulness and willingness of the Chinese civilians who helped them escape.

Current Events march 25, 1943; GERMAN OFFENSIVE HALTED IN DONETS AREA / FIERCE AXIS COUNTER ATTACKS REPELLED ON MARETH LINE / JAPANESE SEAPLANE BASE, ON KISKA, BOMBED:

                        THE TIMES RECORD

              Axis Counter-Attacks Mareth Line

    THE TIMES RECORD, TROY. N. T., THURSDAY EVENING, MARCH 25, 1943

German Offensive Against

Upper Donets Line Halted

REDS HOLD FIRM

IN SPITE OF WEEK

OF BITTER BLOWS

Piles of Corpses Littering

Right Bank of River Only

Achievement of Foe, Says

Red Star.

Moscow (UP)—The Red Army reported today that a week-long German

offensive against the upper Donets Line had failed to carry

across the river, and the Soviet positions are intact everywhere on

a broad arc east of Kharkov. "Several day« of storming the

upper reaches of the Donets have not brought th« enemy any results

except piles of corpses littering the right bank," the official Army organ

Red Star said. "The Soviet defenses have not been broken at a

single point."

The Germans, their strength sapped by enormous losses and stubborn

Russian resistance, have reduced the scale of their attacks

along the Donets to relatively feeble thrusts, front dispatches said.

Nevertheless they were reported still moving up fresh armored forces,

apparently not having given up hope of forcing the Donets de-

spite the fact that they had been brought to a standstill from the

Belgorod area of the river to the

Chuguev region above Kharkov.

Advance On Smolensk.

AMRERICANS SHELL

GERMANS' AIRPORT

DESPITE BOMBING

Yankees Win Control of

Last Mountain Ramparts

Overlooking Foes' Corridor to Sea.

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Gen Sir Bernard L. Montgomery's

British Eighth Army troops

were reported fendding off fierce

Axis counter-attacks m a "Devil's

Cauldron" salient at the upper end

of the Mareth Line in Southern

Tunisia today while f a r t h e r up the

front LINES. long-ran^e 155 mm guns

shelled Mezzouna Aifield only 22

miles fiom the sea.

A bulletin from Gen Dwight D.

Eisenhower's headquarters said the

battle for the Mareth Line continued,

yesterday marked by heavy

artillery dueling.

To the north. the communique

said, American patrols scored local

gains in the Maknassy area.

"In the Gafsa sector, American

patrols carried out offensive operations

with success," the communique

declared. and Allied aerial

squadrons. attacking by- night and

day, bombed and shot up Axis concentrations

along a twenty-mile

stretch between Mareth and Gabes.

Yanks Control Mountains.

YANKS BLAST JAPS ON KISKA—The speculation photo above, taken from a U. S. warplane,shows the results ot a U. S. Army Air Force bombing raid on a Japanese camp and seaplane base on Kiska and, Alaska. Fierce fires rage from hangars and other buildings hit by bombs. Between the pillars ot smoke can be seen seaplanes and, lower left, boats in the water.

Current Events March 26, 1943

Current Events March 24, 1943; ROMMEL REPULSED, HITLER GIVES ORDERS TO HOLD OR DIE / RUSSIANS RECAPTURE VITAL POINT NORTH OF DONETS / DEVESTATING RAID ON NEW BRITIAN ISLAND:

                                    San Mateo Times

SAN MATEO, CALIFORNIA, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 24, 1943

NAZIS REGAIN MARETH LINE

U. S. Forces Hold at Maknassy

MONTGOMERY CLAIMS

ROMMEL REPULSED

IN COUNTER ATTACKS

LONDON, March 24.—(U.R)—Radio Algiers said today that a

German counter-attack had regained most of the territory won'byv

the British Eighth army in the early stages of the drive' against

the Mareth line.

ALLIED HEADQUARTERS, North Africa, March 24.— (U.P) -

— German counter-attacks at the Mareth line and against American

positions in South Central Tunisia have been repulsed in

fierce fighting, an allied headquarters communique said today.

In' London, Prime Minister Winston Churchill told commons

that the German attacks had all but wiped out the bridgehead,

that the British Eighth army had made in the Mareth line.

''The latest information from the Mareth front," he ; said in re-

sponse to a question, shows that the Germans by counter-attacks

have regained the greater part of the bridgehead which had been

stormed and that their main line of defense in that quarter ,has been

largely restored.

Hard Fighting Ahead

RUSS CAPTURE

VITAL POINT

ON NORTH LINE

MOSCOW, March 24.— (LP)— The

Red army today stormed and cap

tured a tactically-important defense

line above Dukhovschinaonly

30 miles northeast of the German

central front bastion of

Smolensk.

(The Moscow radio said 52,000

Germans were killed in the recent

fighting between the northern Donets

and the Dnieper in South Russiad.)

Attacks Fail

New, Giant U.S.

Bombers Reach

British Front

Allies Ready Soon for

Continuous, Heavier

Air Attacks

LONDON, March 24.—(U.P)—

New, bigger, and faster American bombers which will carry

three or four times the bomb weight of the present Flying

Fortresses soon will he thrown into a "round-the-clock" bombardment

of Europe, Maj. Gen. Ira 0. Eaker said today.

Eaker, commander of the United States' army air forces in

Britain, made the disclosure in announcing that the Flying Fortresses

and Liberators had proven the practicability of high level precision

bombing by daylight.

Day and Night

Eaker's force now is ready to build up to a striking power on a

par with that of the Royal Air Force, he Eaid, and to begin the sus-

tained offensive in which the Americans will strike at Europe by day

and the British by night.

Eaker disclosed no further specifications of the new American

bombers which will outreach and out-carry the Flying Fortresses,

which have a bomb capacity of three or four tons at an extreme

range of about 4000 miles.

The experimental period in which the heavy American bombers

proved their ability to fly alone and ward off enemy fighters

has ended, Eakcr said.

52 Nazis Destroyed

Hold Fast or Die,

Hitler to Rommel

By United Press

The Algiers radio delayed reports that Adolph Hitler has

ordered German Marshal Erwin Rommel and Gen. Jurgen Von Armin

to hold fast or die in Tunisia.

Gen. Montgomery, commander of the Eighth army, the broadcaster

said, "will do all he can to see that the second part of the

order is carried out."

25O Jap Planes Destroyed in

Devastating Air Raid on Rabaul

GEN. MacARTHUR'S HEADQUARTERS,

Australia. March 24.—(UP)—United States bombers were

believed today to have blasted new holes in the gathering Japanese

air strength north of New Guinea with a devastating raid that netted

"a substantial portion" of at. Least 250 grounded planes at. the key

enemy base of Rabaul on New Britain island,

The raid came off before dawn yesterday, a communique reported.

Three formations of heavy American bombers let loose M tons of

bombs ranging from 2000-pounders to incendiaries on three airdromes.

They showered down explosives for an hour and a half and when

they turned homeward their crews saw fires in the target areas

sending smoke thousands of feet into air.