Current Events April 22, 1943:

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, APRIL 22, 1943:

The Eighth Army, launching its final offensive to hurl the Axis out of

Africa, has swept into Enfidaville, capturing the town in the fiercest fighting

since El Alamein and hurling back four of Rommel's counter-attacks in the

first hour's assault.

Allied airmen again picked up the tempo of round-the-clock bombing

over Europe yesterday. Smashing attacks by RAF and

Allied planes Tuesday night rammed home assaults on Berlin, Rostock and

Stettin, and yet yesterday the bombers crossed the Channel to Abbeville.

Bombers raided points in Western Germany, in France, Belgium and

Holland and Axis shipping in the North Sea. Russian planes formed the other jaw

of an air pincer by bombing Tilsit, on the East Prussian border.

The Abbeville attack, carried out by

       THE STARS AND STRIPES

Daily Newspaper of U.S. Armed in the European Theater of Operations

          New York, N.Y.—London, England Thursday, April 22, 1943

Eighth Army Launches Final Offensive

Capture Enfidaville.,

Encounter Mounting

Resistance from Foe

Determined Enemy Fights for Every Yard;

Biggest Air Onslaught Aids Drive;

First Army Gains -Ground

By the Associated Press

The Eighth Army, launching its final offensive to hurl the Axis out of

Africa, has swept into Enfidaville, capturing the town in the fiercest fighting

since El Alamein and hurling back four of Rommel's counter-attacks in the

first hour's assault.

Gen. Montgomery's attacks were accompanied by the heaviest assault of

the campaign by the northwest African air forces against Tunisian airfields

and violent air battles, in which 27 Axis aircraft were shot down. It was

officially reported that an additional ten Axis aircraft were shot down Apr. 18.

Meanwhile, enemy machine-guns and mortar positions, deeply entrenched

in natural caves and other fortified positions, still held out on the deep

southern slope of the hill. further to the west, Eighth Army

troops firmly held their positions, gained during the night on a large mountain

bridge, called Jebel Garce, beating off a German counter-attack and taking 100

prisoners.

The retreat of the Axis forces from Enfidaville had 'been foreseen as a natural

consequence of Gen. Montgomery's army, which got a foothold in the ragged

mountain area in Northern Tunisia, overlooking the coastal road and dominates

the approaches over that region from the south.

Patrols went forward, northward from the town, but it appeared likely that an

extensive advance along the coast will not be possible until the Eighth Army is able

to dislodge the desperate defenders from the mountain ridges one by one.

It is a slow and costly process but inevitable since in the gap behind the coast

ridge on which a hold has been gained, there rise a series of higher and more

easily defended hills.

Fierce Opposition

Allies Lash

At Nazis in

3 Way Raid

Soviets Strike in Prussia

As RAF Hits Berlin,

Rostock, Stettin

Allied airmen again picked up the tempo of round-the-clock bombing

over Europe yesterday. Smashing attacks by RAF and

Allied planes Tuesday night rammed home assaults on Berlin, Rostock and

Stettin, and yet yesterday the bombers crossed the Channel to Abbeville.

Bombers raided points in Western Germany, in France, Belgium and

Holland and Axis shipping in the North Sea. Russian planes formed the other jaw

of an air pincer by bombing Tilsit, on the East Prussian border.

The Abbeville attack, carried out by

Venturas of Bomber Command escorted by Spitfires, resulted in the loss of two

Spitfires and three Venturas.

The attack on Berlin was the 61st of the war on the German capital. Stettin,

Germany's largest Baltic port, got its eighth raid ; Rostock, Baltic port and aircraft

manufacturing center, received its multi-target operation cost 31 Allied planes.

the raid on Berlin marked the first time Mosquitoes have attacked that target

at night. They celebrated Hitler's birthday by plastering the Wilmersdorf section

of the city, which had been heavily bombed in previous raids.

Fires in Berlin

Several fires, one " very large," were burning when the bombers left, pilots

reported. .

Rostock got its first raid since Apr. 21, 1942. when 750 tons of- bombs were

dropped. Plants of the Heinkel Company, an assembly plant, and U-boat

yards were the targets. Lancasters, Sterlings and Hahfaxes particqated

in the Stettin raid. Pilots said flak over the U-boat production center and chief supply port for German Armies Russia was pretty weak -when they

arrived. Later it increased in intensity.

Daring more than 20 minutes the bombers poured their loads into the^own.

starting some " really angry fires."

Meanwhile Mosquitoes, Typhoons, Baufighters and Whirlwinds attacked

transport objectives in France, Belgium, Holland and Germany. .

Fifteen locomotives were damaged in attacks on trains, while canal barges near

Courtrai, France, and Ghent, in Belgium, were attacked and sunk. An E-boat

vanished after an attack by a Whirlibomber in the North Sea and a Typhoon reported hitting a 1,500-ton enemy ship.

There was slight enemy air activity over the London area shortly before midnight

Tuesday. Bombs were dropped but caused little damage and few casualties,

the Air Ministry said.