THE STARS AND STRIPES
Daily Newspaper of U.S. Armed Forces in the European Theater of Operations
London, England Saturday, March 20, 1943
Yanks Advance 12 Miles to El Guettar
Now Within
100 Miles of
Eighth Army
1st, 34th, 1st Armored
Divisions Revealed
As in Action
United States forces which swept into Gafsa in a surprise attack
Wednesday morning have occupied El Guettar, about 12 miles to the
east, it was announced at Allied Force Headquarters in North Africa last
night. The town is about 55 miles from the port of Gabes and less than
100 miles from the positions now held by the British Eighth Army in the east.
Other American forces advancing from Gafsa are moving to the north along the
road to Sened, Algiers radio said. Sened lies on the railway to Sfax, about 32 miles
northeast of Gafsa.
Biggest Raid
Leaves Nazi
Yards Ruins
Heaviest Load of Bombs
Dropped by Libs, Forts;
Fighter Toll Over 25
Intelligence reports yesterday showed that American bombers
struck their heaviest blow of the war at Germany in Thursday's daylight
raid on the Nazi naval yards at Vegesack, near Bremen in the northwestern
Reich.
The largest force of U.S. Four-engined bombers yet to go against
the German mainland carried the heaviest U.S. bomb tonnage in the
deepest yet penetration of Germany, an offial announcement by Headquarters,
ETOUSA, stated.
The vital submarine building yards at Vegesack, from which new U-boats slip
down the Weser river to the North Sea, were hit hard, photographs showed, with
it least 19 buildings of the yard totally dtestroyed or heavily damaged. The power
house key pin point target, was damaged, not destroyed, according to the
photographs.
Hugging Tunisia Desert on Bombing Mission
Winging over a Tunisia desert battlefield at 200 'feet, U.S. medium bombers race in close formation for Axis
objectives. Yesterday, low-flying American bombers, operating in the same fashion, opened the way for
the capture of Gafsa, in central Tunisia, by bombing Axis ground defenses and clearing the skies of weak
fighter opposition. Absence of the Luftwaffe on Tunisia fronts has been surprising in the last few days.
Germans Penetrate Kharkov Line
Red Counter Attacks
Retake Villages,
Cross River'
MOSCOW, Mar. 19 (UP)—Heavy
German tank attacks in the Kharkov area are presenting a new threat to some
of the most important gains the Red Army made in its winter offensive.
German attacks in the Chuguyev area, 28 miles southeast of Kharkov, have penetrated
the Russian lines, and the Nazis are throwing in fresh forces in a
desperate attempt to widen the gap. The Russians, however, held the Germans
in all their other attacks along the Severnoy-Donetz, where the battle is
swaying back and forth. The Nazis are fighting savagely to establish bridgeheads
on the eastern bank of the river. Russian reports do not mention the
fighting in the area northeast of Kharkov, where the Germans claim to have captured
the vital railway junction of Byelgorod.
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