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.
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