HEADWAY MADE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 139, 25 March 1941, Page 5

HEADWAY MADE

THE STRUGGLE FOR KEREN.

SEVEN COUNTER-ATTACKS FAIL. ITALIANS’ SERIOUS LOSSES. (United Press Association—Copyright. 1 (Rec. 11.10 a.m.)- LONDON, Mar. 24. A communique issued by British headquarters at Cairo states: “There is no change in Libya. “After successfully staving off seven heavy counter-attacks, in which the enemy sustained serious losses, our troops at Keren (Eritrea) are again making headway. “In Abyssinia, Patriot activities continue to develop satisfactorily. Further south, our general advance into Abyssinia is progressing.”—British Official "Wireless.

ITALIANS RESIST DESPERATELY.

TERRIFIC ATTACKS BY AIR,

LONDON, March 24

British troops are making good progress against Keren, Italy’s stronghold in the mountains of Eritrea. Agency messages say that the battle is increasing in ferocity as the Italians make, desperate attempts to beat hack the ring of stool gripping Keren. Not only are the Italian counter-attacks being thrown back, but the British are maintaining their pressure. Three hundred British and, Italian guns are pumping shells into each other across the gorges of the Eritrean escarpment four miles outside Keren, says a special correspondent of “The Times.” British troops still hold Fort Dologorodoc, where a regiipent from the Midlands suffered a terrific bombardment from the Italians, but British guns silenced severaE'enemy batteries, thus more than equalising scores. There is now' little doubt that . the Italian forces are retreating everywhere else and have chosen Keren as a position at which to make a desperate stand. Keren’s 40,000 defenders including iSavoy Grenadiers and Carabinieri, are suffering cruel losses. Every gorge is strewn with bodies. The British have taken 1000 prisoners including 100 whites. Prisoners state that the Italians have rushed up every giin 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 the peak of a 7000-feet height north of Keren.

Tho Royal Air Force has been devastatingly attacking Italian positions on the escarpment, and also in the town, and has plastered a building in which the enemy headquarters were located with four bombs each of 2501 b. Waves of bombers swept down on troops concentrations on heights near the town and two battalions, one of which comprised of 700 ynen, were completely wiped out. Six deserters from the Grenadiers declared that the British artillery and the Royal Air Force’s repeated raids had made conditions intolerable for the Italian troops. The correspondent says that he met the colonel in charge of brigade headquarters against which Italian alpine troops launched a heavy attack three nights ago. The colonel defended the headquarters with characteristic courage, mobilising clerks and kitchen hands to repel the invaders, who sustained licavv casualties.

An Italian communique claims that a British attack on Keren on Friday evening was repelled everywhere with heavy losses, and that, a column attempting to penetrate the Yavello sector was driven off.