Current Events March 8, 1943; ROMMEL PULLING BACK BELOW MARETH LINE / OPTOMISIM HIGHT AFTER JAPANES LOSE SHIPS IN THE BISMARK SEA / RAILYARDS BOMBED AT RENNES / RUSSIAN ARMY ROLLING WEST:

             The Sheboygan Press

   SHEBOYGAN, WIS, MONDAY, MARCH 8,1943.

Eighth Army Wins First Round

Marshal Rommel

Turns Back After

Losing 33 Tanks

Montgomery's Men Stop

Repeated Thrusts By

Axis Armored Units

Below Mareth Line

Allied Bomb Finds Mark In Bismark Sea Battle

Large Concentration

Maintained By Japs

(By C. YATES McDANIEL)

Somewhere in New Guinea.—UP)

—What I have just seen and heard during a 10,000-mile trip over the

southwestern Pacific area enables me to understand apprehension expressed

in authoritative quarters lest world reaction to Allied victory

in the Bismarck sea prove too enthusiastic and optimistic.

Such reaction, these quarters believe, tends to create the Impression

that the destruction of the 22-ship Japanese convoy not

only has eliminated the enemy threat in this area, but may also

force the enemy to abandon much of his bases in the island chain

north of Australia. These conclusions are not supported here.

Operate On Narrow Margin

I was in the air much of the time during the period of the Bismarck sea action.

Many thoughtful officers say the Allies still are operating on a dangerously

narrow margin of safety. My observations tended to support this view.

Flying Fortresses Bomb ,

Railroad Yards At Rennes

By GLADWIN HILL)

At a U. S. Bomber Station in

England,—(AP)— U. S. Flying Fortresses escorted by RAF Spitfires

plowed a path through Reichsmarshal G o e r i n g' s best

fighters today and bombed a freight train in the railroad yards

at Rennes, France.

(It was announced in London that the French city of Rouen, 150

miles northeast of Rennes, also was attacked by heavy American

bombers.) "We sure plastered that target," said the tail-gunner Stirling

May of Sisters, Ore., a member of the crew of a Fortressrs piloted

by Lieut Lynn Mokler of Clearwater, Calif.

"You could see it miles away. Right after our bombs hit I

could tee a big billow of blue smoke go up."

German Base

At Vyazma Is

Russian Goal

Soviet Troops Continue

To Roll Westward After

Capturing More Than

1OO Settlements

Moscow. —(A— The Russian

army rolled on westward today with fresh Soviet troops pouring

into gaps in the German lines far west of Gzhatsk and south of

Olenino where two Russian columns apparently are planning the

doom of the important German base at Vyaima, 86 mile* west of

Gzhatsk.

The capture of more than a 100 more settlements was reported

in the last 34 hours, while numerous others are falling continuously

and still others are blockaded by the Russians and on the verge of

falling.