Current Events March 22, 1943; GERMAN FORCES, ROMMEL, FACE NEW DISASTER / RUSSIANS CAPTURE VITAL RAIL CENTER/ IN DONETS BASIN / AUSTRALIA EXPECTS ATTACK FROM JAPANESE:

            The Bakersfield Californian

              BAKERSFIELD, CALIFORNIA, MONDAY, MARCH 22, 1943

YANKS SMASH TO MAKNASSY AS

ROMMEL FACES NEW DISASTER

Montgomery's Army

Slams Giant Forces

Into Mareth Line

1400 DAZED DUCE FOLLOWERS ARE TAKEN

PRISONERS AS U. S. GENERAL PATTON HITS

FROM WEST IN SHATTERING THRUST

ALLIED Headquarters in North Africa, March 22. O2?)—

The British Eighth Army was reported tonight to have cap-

tured its initial objectives in an attack on a (5-mile front be

tween the sea and the Mart-til road despite strong axis oppo

sition and deep mine fields. This thrust at the upper end of

the Mareth Line developed as American armor drove a,

wedge into Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's last defense'

barring the way lo the Gulf of Gabes with the capture of

about 1100 prisoners. Field reports said an American

column was w i t h i n sight of Mankassy, a strong German position on

the Gafsa Mahares railway some 50 miles west of the Port of Mahares

The British Eighlh Army was reported to have a t t a c k e d axis forces

on a 6 mile line at the north end of the Mareth front, between the sea

and the Mendenine-Mareth road, against strong opposition.

REDS CAPTURE

VITAL RAIL CITY

DOGGED RESISTANCE

MARKS DONETS FIGHT

MOSCOW, March 22. (UP)—Russian forces on the central front cap-

tured the Important railroad junction of Durovo, only 55 miles north

least of Smolensk, today while the comrades to the south smashed re-

peated attempts by fresh axis armies to force the upper Donets river.

The Soviet high command said that the Germans were drawing increasing

numbers of troops from other fronts and throwing them into

the battle of the Donets basin "straight from tho march."

Scores of tanks and thousands of dead littered tho southern bank of

the Donets below Kharkov, mute testimony to the German determination

to storm across the river and drive tho Soviets back toward the

Don regardless of cost.

JAP AUSTRALIA

ATTACK SEEN

MINISTER DECLARES

NIPPOS DETERMINED

WASHINGTON, March 22. (AP)—

American dive bombers, raiding Mundu on New Georgia island for

the eighth time, struck a Japanese supply area and an enemy gun

position, the navy announced today in a communique which told

of bombing raids on Vila and Kahill.

Australian Army Minister Francis Forde declared today that Japan was

more determined to attack Australia than ever before as the range of

General Douglas MacArthur's bombing attacks emphasized the growing

concentration of enemy power in the islands of the fringe of the continent.

“The allied victories in the Solomons. New Guinea and Bismarck sea

merely Intensified Japan's determination to invade Australia," Fordo

said.

"It can only be assumed that when they are ready, the Japanese will

launch an attack on Australia more ferocious than any yet experienced

in the Pacific."

                                                        Bombings Increase