THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, April 21, 1943:
Springing a powerful, sudden infantry charge by moonlight, the
British 8th army has resumed the offensive at Enftdaville and
seized mountain heights dominating the coastal road to Tunis 40
miles to the north.
The Nazi air force marked the 54th
birthday of Adolf Hitler today with a weak hit-and-run raid on England.
A few of the raiders managed to pierce Biritish defense guns on the
southeast coast after dark to drop high explosives on two districts of
London.
Defenders of Soviet
positions in the Kuban delta held firm today after hurling back renewed
Nazi infantry and tank attacks supported by swarms of German
warplanes.
The War Department disclosed tonight details of the American
bombing raid on Tokyo April 18, 1941, saying that the planes took
off from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet.
This carrier, which subsequently was lost in the Battle of Santa
Cruz on Oct. 26, 1942, carried fliers of the army airforces to within 800
miles of Tokyo, the War Department said.
A series of damaging attacks by bomb-carrying fighter planes on
the Japanese airfield and submarine base at Kiska was announced today
by the Navy Department. Abandoning their usual role of escorting the big
Liberators.
The Charleston Gazette
Charleston, West Virginia, Wednesday Morning, April 21, 1943.
Montgomery Launches Attack
On Rommel's Enfidaville Line
8th Army Takes 1st Objectives,
Piercing Outer Defenses in Hills
Sudden Break-Through, Rout of Foe Viewed
Improbable Because of Mountainous Terrain
ALLIED HEADQUARTERS IN NORTH AFRICA, April 20.—(AP)—
Springing a powerful, sudden infantry charge by moonlight, the
British 8th army has resumed the offensive at Enftdaville and
seized mountain heights dominating the coastal road to Tunis 40
miles to the north, Allied headquarters announced tonight.
Gen Sir Bernard L. Montgomery loosed the assault late last
night and took his initial objectives in what appeared to he the
start of the final offensive to drive the Axis from Tunisia.
In the skies, that offensive was already underway, with 112 Axis
planes destroyed in two days by the mighty Allied air arm.
Montgomery's tough infantry troops, again supported by artillery,
smashed ahead in a three-mile advance to capture the Djebel
Garci, a 1,200-foot height commanding the area 12 miles inland
from the sea, battle front dispatches said.
U. S., British Attack Reported
London Suffers
Light Bombing
RAF Sweeps Continent;
Skoda Plant 'Out'
LONDON, April 20.—(INS)—The Nazi air force marked the 54th
birthday of Adolf Hitler today with a weak hit-and-run raid on England.
A few of the raiders managed to pierce Biritish defense guns on the
southeast coast after dark to drop high explosives on two districts of
London.
The all clear sounded in the capital shortly after 11 p. m. (5 p. m. EWT).
Preliminary reports indicated some damage and a few casualties
occurred in London. One bomb hit a shed in the greater London district,
injuring a few persons and damaging some nearby houses.
Meanwhile, British V e n t u r a bombers escorted by fighters extended
the current air offensive against the continent into its 8th
consecutive day by attacking rail targets at Boulogne, docks at Cherbourg
and industrial works at Zeebrugge, Belgium. All planes re turned safely.
At the same time, fighter-bombers escorted by fighters attacked an
Axis airfield near Le Havre France.
Red Kuban Line
Holds Off Axis
Russians Stand Firm j
At Other Points
MOSCOW, April 21.—(Wednesday)—(INS)— Defenders of Soviet
positions in the Kuban delta held firm today after hurling back renewed
Nazi infantry and tank attacks supported by swarms of German
warplanes.
Heavy losses were inflicted on the Nazi attackers and 22 enemy
planes were destroyed, the Soviet midnight communique announced.
On the central front northwest of Moscow, 100 additional German
troop's were killed in intermittent artillery duels; while on the Kalinin
front. 300 Nazis were wiped out when the Russians captured a
strongly-fortified position.
Tokyo Raiders Left Hornet, Flew 800
Miles, Hit 5 Cities, Lost All Planes
WASHINGTON, April 20.—(AP)—
The War Department disclosed tonight details of the American
bombing raid on Tokyo April 18, 1941, saying that the planes took
off from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet.
This carrier, which subsequently was lost in the Battle of Santa
Cruz on Oct. 26, 1942, carried fliers of the army airforces to within 800
miles of Tokyo, the War Department said.
They bombed not only military objectives in Tokyo, but armament
plants, dock yards, railroad yards and oil refineries in Yokohama,
Nagoya, Kobe and Osaka.
The American planes, the War Department disclosed, were under
orders to fly to specified landing fields in China. However, they
were unable to reach their assigned fields. One landed in Russian
territory, the others made forced or crash landings in China or in
water off the Chinese coast. All of the planes making the forced landings
were wrecked.
The War Department's disclosure of the raid details included information
that of the 80 men on the daring raid, five are interned in
Russia, eight are prisoners or are presumed to be prisoners of Japan,
two are missing, and one was killed.
The other 64, many after long delays, made their way to camps
of the Chinese army and then back to American territory. Seven -.vho
escaped were injured. Preparations for the raid, the department disclosed, first
started in January, 1942, months before bombs fell on Japan.
Maj. Gen. James H. Doolittle, now commander of the strategic air
force. Mediterranean air command, in North Africa, personally selected
the men to accompany him on the venture.
Kiska Sub Nest, Air
Field Raided Again
(Picture of Kiska on Page 2.)
WASHINGTON, April 20.—(INS)
—A series of damaging attacks by bomb-carrying fighter planes on
the Japanese airfield and submarine base at Kiska was announced today
by the Navy Department. Abandoning their usual role of escorting the big
Liberators an
New Field In Fighter Range
Development of American flying fields in the Andreanof islands,
only about 200 miles east of Kiska has made possible the employment
of fighter planes as bombers for Japanese positions.
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