Pacific News-Review

Notes And Comment On

The Progress Of The War

From March 13 To April 14

Mar. 13; A general thaw has slowed up the Russian advance on the southern and central Russian front, and it now seems that the Russians cannot reach Smolensk, or the line of the Dneiper River. The Germans have withdrawn from Viazma, but they have launched a great counter-attack against Kharkov, where the situation is critical.

Mar. 13; Rommel’s army, on the Mareth Line, in South Tunisia, is work ing feverishly, preparing for the expected attack by the British Eighth Army.

Mar 15: An enemy convoy, which was approaching Wewak, TNG, was attacked by Flying Fortresses.

Mar. 17: On Monday morning Darwin had its biggest Japanese air raid since its first raid on February 19, 1942. Only slight casualties and damage have been reported. Spitfires destroyed six fighters and one bomber, and damaged nine others.

Mar. 17: Moscow announces the recap ture cf Kharkov by the Nazis, but Rus sian forces are having further successes on the central front, and are still threat ening Smolensk.

Mar. 19: German armies continue their great counter-attack around Kharkov, in the Donets Basin, but the Russian defences there are gaining strength.

Mar. 19: Prepared enemy positions at the mouth of the Mambare River (north east Papua) the existence of which was suspected during the Buna fighting, have been found abandoned by American and Australian patrols. It is believed that the large Jap convoy destroyed in the Bismarck Sea battle was proceeding to the Mambare.

Mar. 23: The Eighth Army has launched its attack on the Mareth Line in Tunisia, and has made some progress.

American forces in the Gafsa area attacked at the same time.

Mar. 23: The Russians have made pro gress on the Smolensk front; but fierce battles for the Donets bridgeheads con tinue.

Mar. 24: The Eighth Army has driven a wedge in the Mareth Line defences; but the British, attacking around the Matmata hills, are developing an out flanking movement.

Mar. 24; Officially announced that the Ninth Division, AIF, veterans of Syria, Tobruk and El Alamein, has returned to Australia.

Mar. 25: The enemy at the Mareth Line counter-attacked, forced back the British Eighth Army, and restored their defence line. To the north-west, the Americans are holding their ground.

Mar. 25: 250 Japanese bomber and fighter planes, crammed into the Rabau) area, were targets for a large-scale raid by Allied air forces.

Mar. 26: Russians are now only 32 miles from Smolensk. In the Donets region, the German counter-attack has slowed down.

Mar. 29: The British outflanking col umn suddenly appeared and captured El Hamma, in the rear of the Mareth Line, and drove down upon the Gabes Gap.

This brilliant manoeuvre sent Rommel’s army into precipitate retreat.

The enemy abandoned the Mareth Line, and the Eighth Army is now pursuing him northwards. The American Fifth Corps is pressing in from the north-west, trying to cut off Rommel’s retreat.

Mar. 29: The RAF yesterday smashed Berlin, in the heaviest raid the German capital has yet experienced.

Apl. 1: The British First Army in Tunisia now has begun a drive in the north coast zone.

Apl. 1: A Japanese convoy, which apparently intended to give relief to Jap forces in the Lae area, turned back near Finschhafen, after being spotted and attacked by Allied planes.

Apl. 2; The area held by the Axis forces in Tunisia is steadily shrinking as Rommel retreats and the Allies advance.

Tunisia already is being hailed as “Ger many’s Dunkirk.” The Germans now are 20 miles north of Gabes and the pursu ing Eighth Army has made junction with the American Army.

Apl. 3:. The last Japanese survivors from the Bismarck Sea convoy were rounded up in Goodenough Island and the Trobriands, to which they drifted on rafts, boats and wreckage, before the north-west wind.

Apl. 5: Three Japanese warships were sunk by Allied bombers off the coast of New Ireland, near Kavieng; and a small number of cargo ships were destroyed or damaged.

Apl. 6: The round-the-clock air-offen sive against the Axis in Europe, by the RAF and the US Army Air Corps, con tinues. One hundred Flying Fortresses attacked Naples, and Kiel and Paris have been heavily raided.

Apl. 7: The Allied air-offensive in Tunisia is going non-stop, in an attempt to “soften” Italian resistance to the next phase of the attack.

Apl. 7: Novorossisk. German-held former base of Russian Black Sea Fleet, is threatened with recapture by Russian forces. There is much fighting on the Kuban (Caucasus) front.

Apl. 6: The Eighth Army has broken through the Wadi Akarit Line in Tuni sia, and again is pursuing the fleeing enemy. Meanwhile, Axis airfields in

Tunisia and Sicily are receiving a terri fic aerial pounding.

Apl. 9: Considerable gains were made by the British First Army, in northern Tunisia.

Apl. 10: Pursued by the British Eighth Army, Rommel’s forces now are in full retreat towards Susa, Central Tunisia, Apl. 10: The Japanese made a large scale aerial raid on the Solomons on Wednesday. The Americans destroyed 37 Jap planes, and lost seven.

Apl. 12: It was announced officially that about 3,000 Australians had been killed by fighting and disease in the New Guinea campaign.

Apl. 12: Rommel’s forces, retreating rapidly in Tunisia, are now north of Susa.

It is thought that Rommel will fight a delaying action right back to Bizerta, where he will attempt embarkation. If he does, he will face disaster.

Apl. 13: Two more Tunisian bases— Susa and Kairwan—have been occupied by the British Eighth Army and the Americans, who have come through the passes to the westward.

Apl. 14; Axis forces are feverishly pre paring defence positions south-west and south of Tunis and Bizerta, as the first stage of the siege of the northern tip of Tunisia begins. The Eighth Army is at Enfidaville —20 miles north of Susa.

Apl. 14: Port Moresby was attacked yesterday by 46 Japanese bombers and 60 fighters. Seventeen bombers and nine fighters were shot down for certain, and 10 other bombers and one fighter prob ably destroyed. This is the largest Jap anese raid on Australian territory since the occupation of Rabaul in January, 1942.