Daily Post - 11.05.1943, Side 1

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Tuesday, May llth, 1943
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Over 50,000 Prisoners Now
Naval, Air And Land Forces
Closing In On Bon Peninsula
LoncLon. With the Allied forces converging on the Axis rem-
nants in the Cape Bon peninsula, and mopping up isolated en-
emy pockets, the Royal Navy is blocking any Axis attempts to
escape by sea. Following the fall of Bizerta and Tunis, American
heavy bombers made a devastating attack on Palermo in Sicily,
Allied messages to-day report
that the Royal Navy has al-
ready drawn a cordon round
the coasts of Bon, peninsula,
so that it may be considered
effectively closed and blockad-
ed against all attempts of the
penned-in enemy forces to es-
cape from the mercilessly
tightening grip of the Allied
land forces.
NAVY STRIKES AT AXIS
REFUGE
Our light naval forces have
been intensely active day and
night all along the Tunisian
coast, with orders from Ad-
miral Cunninghan, C.-in-C.
Mediterranean to sink every
Axis vessel sighted. The Royal
Navy has concentrated parti-
cularly on the waters surround
ing the Cape Bon peninsula,
and many Axis ships have al-
ready been sunk. Although
3 Tears Ago
3 Years Ago Yesterday.
The Germans Invaded Bel-
gium and Holland. Queen
Wilhelmina of the Nether-
lands broadcast to her pe-
ople and paid a tribute to
those who had died in the
struggle for freedom. The
Prime Ministers of Belgium
and the Netherlands also
spoke.
there are no indications that
the enemy forces will attempt
any large scale evacuation by
sea, many of the vessels sunk
or damaged have been carry-
ing troops, oil and war equip-
ment. In addition several Ax-
is p>ositions in the peninsula,
among them Kelibia, the north
emmost port on the east coast,
have ben under constant bom-
bardment from our vessels for
the last day or two.
SURRENDER AT TUNIS AND
BIZERTA
In the Tunis, Bizerta and
Tebourba areas all organised
enemy resistance ceased at 10
o’clock p. m. yesterday. The A1
lied terms, which were ac-
cepted promptly, were: uncon-
ditional surrender, with dest-
ruction of war material to ee-
ase immediately.
The number of prisoners by
then, rounded up since Friday,
was above 50,000.
GENERALS GIVE UP
Yesterday’s dispatches re-
ported the capture of Tebour-
ba, Djedeida and Zaghouan,
the last by French forces, ad-
vancing from Pont du Fahs. —
The American Second Corps
completed the mopping-up op-
erations in the Bizerta area
yesterday, and the bag of pri-
soners in this area alone reach-
ed 25,000, among them six di-
visional generals with their
staffs. The names of two well-
known German Generals were
mentioned as among those cap
tured: General Manteuffel and
General Krause, who asked
for armistice. Of the 25,000
captured here, only 400 were
Itallans.When the Germans rea
lised their defeat, their mor-
ale broke, and they surrender-
ed wholesale, 5,000 in one
place, and 1,000 of the “crack”
Hermann Goering division at
another place.
PANZER DIVISION TAKEN
The communiqué also reve-
als that the remnants of Rom-
mel’s formidable 15th German
Division, led by general Doro-
witz, surrendered to their old
and much feared enemy, the
7th British Armoured Divisi-
on. Great quantities of equip-
ment and war material of all
kinds, as yet uncounted, has
fallen into Allied hands.
CLOSING IN ON CAPE BON
Heavy fighting is still going
on at the base of the Cape
Bon peninsula and in the area
immediately below it. The
Three Allied Armies, the Brit-
ish First from the north-west
which is now 15 miles from
Hammamet; the French from
the south-west, and the Britísh
8th from the south, may now
be said to be converging on
the base of the peninsula. —
This 15 miles stretch between
the First British armoured
columns, coming down from
Tunis, and Hammamet, is now
the only link between the re
treating Axis forces in the Cape
Bon peninsula and the enemy
infantry facing the British 8th
Army in the south.
RESISTANCE AT
ZAGHOUAN
The French are meeting stiff
resistance in the Zaghouan ar-
ea, where heavy fighting was
reported this morning. From
War Cbiefs Confer
In Cairo
London. An important
conference of British mili-
tary and civilian chiefs is a-
bout to take place in Cairo.
Among military repre-
sentatives are General Sir
Henry Maitland Wilson,
General Sir Henry Pown-
all, and Air Chief Mar-
shal Sir Sholto Douglas, ME
Air Force Commander. —
Among the civilian repres-
entatives are the High Com-
missioner of Palestine, the
Governors of Cyprus and
Aden, and the Ministers to
Syria, Persia and Abyssinia.
Sobmarme Shells
Japanese Coast
London. A Japanese com-
muniqué reports the shelling
by an American submarine of
a village on Hokkeido, the
most noríherly of the three big
islands which form Japan pro-
per.
It is known that American
submarines have been active
in the waters around Japan. —
One of them recently approach
ed so close as to get a good vi-
ew of a horse-race on land.
the Eighth Army’s sector the
news is mainly of patrol acti-
vity, and the taking of some
local objectives by Montgomer
y’s men.
The air section of to-day’s
communiqué reports heavy and
continuous air attacks on Axis
troop concentrations and
transports in the Cape Bon
peninsula. Many enemy vehic-
les have been left in flames, —
and many Axis aircraft on the
landing grounds have been
destroyed.