KEREN STRUGGLE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23923, 25 March 1941, Page 7

KEREN STRUGGLE

DESPERATE FIGHTING STEADY PROGRESS ITALIANS' CIIUEL LOSSES POUNDED BY AHTILLERiY LONDON, March '_> I Throe hundred British and Italian guns are pumping shells at each other across the gorges of the Eritrea 11 escarpment four miles outside of Keren, says Ihe special correspondent of the Times. The Imperial forces continue to make good progress. An agency report, states that the battle is increasing in ferocity ns the Italians make, desperate efforts to heat hack the ring of steel formed by Imperial troops. The latter have not only repulsed the enemy's counterattacks but arc maintaining the prossure. Enemy Batteries Silenced British troops still hold Fort Dologorodoc, where a regiment from the -Midlands suffered a terrific bombardment from the Italians, hut British guns silenced several enemy batteries, thus more than equalising the scores. 'there is now little doubt that the Italian forces are retreating everywhere else, and have chosen Keren as the position from which to make a desperate stand. Keren's -10.000 defenders, including Savoy Grenadiers and Carahinieri, are suffering cruel losses. Kvery gorge is strewn with bodies, the correspondent says.

G-uns ol 1870 in Use The British have taken 1000 prisoners, including hundreds of whites. The prisoners state that the Italians have rushed up every gun in their possession, including pieces built in Austria in 1870. British and French units, including detachments of the Foreign Legion, are heavily engaging the enemy on a peak 7000 feet in height north of Keren. The .Royal Air Force in the past 21 hours has made devastating attacks on the Italian positions on the escarpment, also the town of Keren itself, and plastered the building in which are the enemy headquarters with 2501b. bombs. Two Battalions Wiped Out Waves of bombers swept down on troop concentrations on heights near the town, and two battalions, one of which comprised 700 men, were completely wiped out. Six deserters from the Grenadiers declared that the British artillery and the repeated raids of the Royal Air Force made conditions intolerable for the Italian troops. The correspondent- says he met a British colonel in charge of brigade headquarters, against which Italian Alpini troops launched a heavy attack three nights ago. The colonel defended his headquarters with characteristic courage, mobilising clerks and kitchen hands to repel the invaders, with heavy casualties. BRITISH TAKE NEGHELLI ADVANCE FROM KENYA IMPORTANT ABYSSINIAN TOWN LONDON, March '23 Imperial troops pressing northward into the Abyssinian uplands captured the important town of Neghelli. This is the chief news contained in the Cairo headquarters communique. The report further states: "In Libya there is nothing of importance to report. In Eritrea, in the Keren area, fighting continues. Yesterday our troops registered a number of local successes, inflicting heavy casualties on the enemy and taking a further 130 prisoners. In Abyssinia, Neghelli was occupied, and operations in all other areas continue to develop to our advantage." Neghelli lies 115 miles north of Morale, the Kenva-Abyssinian frontier "post, and some 90 miles east of Yavello, the capture of which was recently announced. The importance of Neghelli lies in its position as well as in its being a defended Italian post. It is situated on four cross-roads on the Strada Reale (Royal Road) from Mogadiscio to Addis Ababa, and its capture may be regarded as significant in the sequence of tactical and strategic operations which the Imperial Forces are conducting intensively from Italian Somnliland bases. It is interesting to note that the marquisate of Neghelli was conferred on Marshal Graziani in 1936. NAVAL TRAWLER LOST (h'ccil. T.IO p.m.) LONDON, March 'JH The Admiralty announces that the naval trawler Rubens is overdue and must he considered lost.