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.