The campaign in North Africa is over, the defeat of the Axis forces there complete and overwhelming.
The following special communiquÄ was issued from Allied Headquarters shortly before midnight:╤
Organised resistance, except by isolated pockets, has ceased.
General von Arnim, C. in C. of Axis forces in Tunisia, has been captured.
It is estimated that the total number of prisoners captured since May 5 is 150,000.
Vast quantities of guns and war material of all kinds have been captured, including many guns and aircraft in serviceable condition.
Von Arnim was captured by British troops yesterday afternoon at Cape Bon, on the extreme tip of the peninsula. Enemy resistance ended officially at 8 15 last night.
It was then evident that the end of the campaign was only a matter of hours. Already the enemy, apart from isolated pockets in the hills, had abandoned the struggle in the peninsula, while the enemy troops surrounded north of Enfidaville were being slowly ╥throttled╙ as the First and Eighth Armies and the French 19th Corps closed in on them.
In addition to Von Arnim, eleven other generals have been captured. Others taken yesterday included the commanders of the 10th Panzer Division and the 90th Light Infantry Division.
THE FINAL THRUSTS
From E. A. Montague,
our Special Correspondent
WITH THE FIRST ARMY, TUNISIA
MAY 11 (NIGHT)
The enemy╒s last hope of getting any substantial number of troops out of Tunisia or even into Cape Bon Peninsula has now gone. By one lightning stroke after another the First Army has cut off Cape Bon from the mainland and penned its enemy garrison in the mountainous roadless interior of the peninsula. There they are isolated from all supplies or reinforcements, and must surrender when their food and ammunition give out.
Our naval and air forces wait eagerly to annihilate any attempts at evacuation, but indeed hardly any have been made. The interior of Cape Bon is dotted with the smoke of fires which it is believed are caused by the enemy burning their equipment lest it fall into our hands. That is fairly conclusive evidence that they have no hope of holding out long and in fact some 20,000 have surrendered to-day.
ROUND THE PENINSULA
The First Army╒s infantry followed up their armour╒s brilliant break-through yesterday morning at Hammam Lif with equal dash and speed. A brigade of Churchills set out from the Hammam Lif area late last evening with infantry with fixed bayonets riding on every tank. In eighteen hours they swept right along the north-west side of the Peninsula and finally reached the extreme tip of Cape Bon at two this afternoon.
Three times on the way they met organised resistance in fixed positions: each time the tanks drove straight up to the enemy trenches and the infantry jumped off and bayoneted the defenders.
Meanwhile other tanks and infantry cleared up the low-lying neck of the peninsula during the day and moved up along the south-east side to make contact with their comrades at Cape Bon itself and close the ring.
The tanks which broke through yesterday at Hammam Lif reached and by-passed Hammamet last night and reached Bou Ficha this morning.
There they met some resistance, but overcame it and advanced to within eight miles of the Eighth Army, thus closing the ring round the enemy force which still remains in the hilly country between Zaghouan and Bou Ficha.
This force, the last Axis troops still fighting in Africa and now cut off from all help, is believed to number about 40,000 men, of which 12,000 are fighting troops. It comprises what is left of the German 21st Panzer Division, the German 90th Light Division, and the Italian Superga Division, plus smaller remnants of other divisions. It has got hardly any petrol and only limited supplies of food and ammunition.
The French attacked its western flank to-day, where Italians are posted, and the result was Italian overtures for surrender, but apparently their own artillery and German machine-guns are ready to fire on them if they try to give themselves up. The surrender or annihilation of the whole force, however, cannot be long delayed.
In one week hopes of either a Sevastopol or a Dunkirk have been utterly destroyed.
