-_S u N OCp^_ T H UR S D£ L, _M AR CJOl* _ 1^2. > GOOD EVENING EVERYBODY: to T q battle of the Mareth Line reached A % its climax. Near the northern end of that line there ut OL a ta fi-m»=gfeg±^by the British Eighth Army. Yesterday we heard that RommelV"1 had counter-attacked. Tonight we learn that he has definitely won back his main positions on that Mareth Line. General Montgomery has lost the bridgeheao he had established across W Wadi Z c ^ stq near the Tunisian / ^ the key ta } ? c^L tTv-esi ^ / n . i ~ mi t h niM^jfcwrri but Rommel the span they had thrown^^A^i' let a fierce barrage of shellf ire-clhiat prevented the light British spearhead nc^- tW LEAS-' 2 However, the Eighth Army still is holding .an txr some of the gains it made on the approaches to the Wadi. other words, there still is a breach in the Mareth Line. Meanwhile, the British flanking force that Montgomery sent through the desert, is believed to be in the throes of a heavy fight with strong German forces twenty-five miles to the south of Gabes. Th€ f-i£rtrest——erf—t-h-o- w-ho 1 o -war—-10 roing ef* that -holo— A strict military censorship ha^_been slapped down on the reporting of details of ths^ battle. Correspondents were expressly ordered to write nothing about the British Eighth Army except the facts given them in the communique. Newspapermen were also instructed not to speculate, not to draw their own LEAD__- 3 conclusions, nor %=© guess at what the enemy might he A attempting. This official secrecy will be kept up until the battle has gone teTIrnTtrs^y one way or another. But the military authorities (M# allow correspondents to J * . ^ . /e A report A 5^Xtr3ESB^"vTolent and -bloody^r __________ _ O ------- The British are trying to break through at another point further north near the extreme end of the lin^The Germans are fighting back desperately. The ^ A most hopeful part of the news from Tunisia is that Rommel has been obliged to split the Nazi armored forces ---- V V into four units?! In spite of his tgmpow come-back /A yesterday, the Allied columns ^re_slowly forcing him into the sea. The news of the American army's operations a iiiPd headquarters merely is curt and laconic. Aliiea ne i >,h. + they are still fighting in the area announce that tney j +h?t our troops have made around Maknassy, snd adds that our LEAP . 4 local gains. In the Gafsa sector, th-e pctoar? described as principally patrol operations, which were A extensive and successful. -------- cD later dispatch brings word that the A Americans have rolled ahead ten miles from Maknassy, and are now fighting their way up the last mountain pas that separates them from the Mediterranean,Sw./ In — 3 n in comaand of the pass and are / ~t£j? (V a ^. yqrtr"tha Below them is a narrow strip of land, Rommel's only line of communication to the north. ^^Wd^ indicate that the Allies between them are KtgW on the verge of having the Afrika Korps ha»mriyi'l- rif. encircled. SspCcajJ- northern TunisU, thei^-H.Ji .ioth-rrrr Z.. T * „ c.Pcretary of War Stimson • J?i Washington, Secreucii ■ ir*+f(p+ there is no doubt the Allies told the country^that ther LEAD 5 will eventually win in Tunisia. But, he warned us, J'many of our b-ey e muoth-e- j u?'i l m if HHrtffirain our way It must always be remembered," he^tw=»#=rara^ "that the grim conclusive battles must be fought on the ground. In this respect, said Stimson, "the Allied forces in North Africa have more than justified themselves against the veteran German troops." The Secretary also had an encouraging report about air power. The war above ground in North Africa, vie \JiiOC^l vor We are shooting is now heavily m our favor. ..e A down three or four Axis planes for everyone we lose. , , +h; air raids over Nazi-occupiec Then he pointed out that r , distinct and deliberate relation to the Europe have a discing The t IJ p avv day and night attacks •IP fighting in Africa. Th.-Seavy ni?nes on Nazi war plants made by British ana ^ ieep hsti fighting Planes at h-.e./^V^ otherwise he used against US in »°hth ,fpi». otherv’ise be RAIDS FOLLOW LEAD account o.t the n91o^r raid our flyers made the other day on the Nazi submarine base at Vegesack, near Bremen The target, said Stimson, was completely demolished and 7T the area enveloped in flames. But^it appears that the best effort of Uncle Sam?s airmen was accomplished in France, March Eighth. ffasC^n attack by flying i fi: i nprobably the most devastating raid of this kind vi ^ CP conducted in the whole war." H wtu 'UU r«port«ji_b#— ^Brigadi'^^^ewlon Longfellow, Chief of the Eighth Air A ^ Force Bomber Command. Longfellow went on to so, that the results of • aid .ould laonthe. He j Z art A ^ +h-+ the raid on Vegesack was enough to also announced that tn cripple the Nazi submarine shipyards there for a RAIDSJ[OLLOjV_LEAI) - 2 cons ide t cbie length ol time. In less than five months, esty : lying rortresses and Liberators have dropped more than lour thousand tons of boinbs and accounted for seventeen hundred and sixty-two German planes destroyed or damaged, or probably destroyed^ Longfellovysadah a n ^ ^ (r^that he is hoping soon to be able to make daylight raids on the same scale as the farilisli Jtpyar^- 'js.y a. ' —F o r o c ,L m 9—de vast at night raids. SUBMARINE ^r0v^r^ accounts, the most important battle now going on is the campaign against U-boats in the Atlantic. Both the President and Prime Minister Churchill have let it be known that this at present is the first consideration in Allied strategy. Churchill told the House of Commons today that the United Nations hxY*xk now have substantially larger fleets afloat than they had at the worst moment in the U-boat war,and this improvement is continuing. At the same time, the Nazi high command claims to have developed new improvements in submarine chasers ^ claim! 0* ■ !>»« s““k fi,e Briti3h ’“d*rsea boats in the Mediterranean in the course of a few days. +ho House of Commons asked Churchill A member of the House 01 a, , . 4 ha+ thev had sunk more than ^ab.ut a recent Nazi claim that they out of one convoy in the North Atlantic. thirty ships SUBMAKINE_::_2 Churchill replied, "All sorts of claims are made by the German radio, and the Nazis would very much like to know how far adrift they are from the truth. But," he added, "nothing would induce me while I am responsible, to qualify enemy knowledge on this matter." Raymond Clapper, in his column today, says we are breaking every shipbuilding record. He described a visit he paid the other day to the Cun Shipbuilding xards at Chester, Pennsylvania. He saw a tanker launched, "the first he had ever seen launched", and he acds, "when you see a see a ship slide down the skids into the water, you get a deep thrill out of it." Raymond Clapper adds: n Joseph N. Pew, Chairman of the Sun Shipbuilding Company,. said he had seen all these years hundreds of ships launched , but after he still gets a thrill out of it." RUSSIA The Germans have net much to say about the fighting on the Russian front today except that the Red Army serious losses and that its attacks have weakened. The goviets,^aa- t’he—other hand-, report that they have the Nazi Aimy stopped along the upper Donets. Red Army positions are holding firm everywhere on a broad arc east of Kharkov. The German attack in the upper Nonets has been going on for a week now. The RED STAR , the official organ of the Army, says it has brought the Nazis no results except piles of corpses littering the right bank of the river. Soviet^ defense it claims, have not been broken at a s mgle^ front. Front line dispatches to Moscow claim that tic* German losses have been enormous and that their „ latest Nazi attacks on the strength is failing^ T^e _ s' >>10 "tf’hev are 2 -t a standstill Donets have been feeble. They RUSSIA_. i _2 all the way from Belgorod to the region above and below Kharkov, -kt LL^—same -tDbdjT they are still bringing up strong reinforcements of further armored forcej 5 ^i/>^ 2 f^ ayg stl^-1 d-e4r^;^in4d to onetn—rir-i-rre^ — O---- Further morth, the Russian story is more fr/rt sanguine. The Red army is now -f** yn4.by at the gates of Smolensk. SsgsJ^asses of Russian tanks have forced their way through the outer defense area of the Nazi fortification system around the historic city, Tho Fi:^' frelumn that has—bueii aJujuiing alonc~the main railroad from Mo3-gror-tTg-War^aw, has ^o-aght its-way-W—th c -94t^¥6._frf-n»roguLuZh. The 4 -^-Mi-important railway. A column driving down from the north is only , , n^e. rniies from Yartsevo- “That—drs the seventeen a—iia 1^ mile y _ i i '-^c^v' , in the Nazi line. + here-. 14 defense bastion ih tne ^ + hc,a=;t of Smolensk, rfcsel-#’. -otriry thirty miles northeast ,cene of tho fighting ihore in one of tho groats ROSSIA - 3 The Russians aclaim to be >g^"tting—along—Ijy m —th-e—Gw acan1 tts ~—¥11 ey ft-Up' advancing north of the Kuban River^ have taken one place forty miles north of A A the Nazi naval base at Novorossisk and another place nineteen miles northeast of Novorossisk. The Germans \ are being pushed into a pocket between the Sea of Azov aid the Black Sea, a pocket that Is growing smaller # - -a i l”i he— t i m o ■ So say the Russians A m £VAI j battle In the waters around the Solomons Islands, there was a naval battle earlier this month, and tonight we have some of the details. An American task force was on its way, stealing through the island, to shoot up the Jap bases at Munda and Vila. The Japs had set a trap for them. A couple of Nipponese warships lay in ambush for the American task force. However, they were spotted by Lieutenant Broyles, a Navy flyer, hac a r —X >7 grandstand seat for thatshow, sitting^n a spotter Kula Gulf, all ready plane, up-otaufr.—saw cnem for act ion, ready to surprise our ships. Said Broyles; •I flashed .ord to our task force and then the surprise -a „ He not only flashed word but was on the other foot. • nur guns went into action at gave accurate range. Our gun twenty minutes th£~ two enemy long distance.^ Before they sank ships ^iU A in iv able to let loose one or two flames, they were only NAVAL BATTLE 2 — shots, which went wild. s, Thereupon, the task force went on to bombard /V Munda ana Vila. The Japs had coastal ba11erie *the-3^- b4.-aeted- A i or-c-e -*{^n on— of Jftp emplacements, tents, barracks, planes on the grounjl jUclf , T^ey—otofi^d faup—oopM^aUa- m&.STro , rrhieK—f inally—j o i n-» up an.1 1 111 r amr wnti L i'S fii’e,' — CHENAULT President Roosevelt made a lot of new generals today. He nominated seventy-three colonels to be brigadiers. He also nominated twenty-three brigadiers for promotion to major general^ i-t-ia to among them is Brigadier Claire Chenault, Commander of the Fourteenth Army Air Force in China.j Also D r i g ck I Gon-er^rlr €-1 ay-ton L* -Bi-co»^l--» ^ the T^nth - ir ^ ^ in liiddra -errrd Chenault, you will rer^l, i^-jthe colorful, hard-bitten, *?-£***■ 1 1 ho made ouch a name *or himself leader of the famous Flying Tigers. fcU fljxro X fravc—and ft 11 ttve by Claire—€ h e n u ulb mh-^t—t4i^--B^rTdrrsdr PvM»-eepsf jusU s-w-eai?. i-s- a flyer frtrnr £222 The chiel news from Washington today is that we have a new federal agency. Its function will be to tackle and conquer our food problem. It is called the "Administration of Food B Production and Distribution.” The head of it is Chester C. Davis of St.Louis, now President of the Federal Reserve Bank there. At one time he was head of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration. Some parts of the set-up are not altogether clear. The Administration of Food Production and Distribution will be a part of the Department of Agriculture. Claude Wickard, who has been Food Administrator, will continue to be Secretary of Agriculture. But it does"Ti#t appear^what will be his relations to Chester Davis or Chester Davis's relations to the Secretary of Agriculture. The White House release uses these words: FOOEL- 2 "The Administrator will have charge of what may be called the food production and distribution of the department. Tf That will include the Agricultural Adjustment Administration. It will also include the food distribution that were transferred to the Department of Agriculture by* the War Production Board last December. Also the recruitment of farm labor recently transferred to the Department by the War Manpower Commission. Wickard, said the White House, will continue to be a member of the War Production Board, also the Economic Stabilization Board, the Combined Food Board, and other committees which now consume a large portion of his time and prevent his giving to the administration ^tT^eT'atlonal activities the ti.e h. .ould like to devote to such ad.ioistration. The »hit. House also said that President Roosevelt had drafted Chester Davis FOOD - 3 for his new job. It is believed that Davis will have control over all farm machinery or at least procure from the War Production Board the release of enough steel to make more farm machinery. He will have price control over all food products from the farm to the distributor. But the O.P.A. will still hang onto its power over rationing. The theory of government circles is that this new agency will put an end to divided control over food and farm products. Governor Vivian of Colorado today took action in opposition to the state draft officials. They claimed recently that they had drafted no essential draft workers in Colorado since December. Governor Vivian said he found that out of fifty-nine men drafted recently in one county, twent^two were farmers, all essential. )0D - L So he has ordered the head of the Colorado Selective Service not to draft any more farm workers. Federal r guiations, he said, give him authority to do that. The Office of Price Administration has prosecuted many people. Today in Los Angeles the regional O.P.A. office was in court on the other end of the pj.ank. A metals company asked the court for an injunction to stop the agency from "destroying its business and good will." Thi^ is being done, says the Company, by conflicting orders and red tape. In^its petition t>e^Company said itrs officers w utterly bewildered. 0. P. A^'off icials rep^ntly warned them to comply mor^closely with/0.P.A. regulati^pjfs. The Comjrany ' s counsel^^torted : "W^fuld not figure out fhat they^fere," and he added: "We could jaht stay in iness unless we violated one ruling or anotner. There are The attorney said further: .housands of tons of scrap gathered in recent school drives which are still lying around because everyone , ,i„ The O.P.A. has ruled afraid to buy or handle it. that in Arizona the scrap must be moved by rail, not by truck. But most of the scrap is far far away from any rails. So there it sits.