SWEEPING BLOW

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 244, 15 October 1935, Page 7

SWEEPING BLOW

GREAT MECHANISED FORCE. TANKS BELCHING LIQUID FLAME. RAIN OF GAS AND EXPLOSIVE BOMBS. United Press Association.—Copyright.—Rec. 1.30 p.m. LONDON, October 14. The "Daily Mail" Jibouti correspondent says the attack on the Ogaden front followed a dramatic air dash by General de Bono, who flew in a 'plane hundreds of miles across Abyssinia to confer with General Graziani, who approved his long-cherished plan' for a desert "push" with highly-mechanised forces aiming at the waterholes round Sasabaneh, at the foot of the Ogaden plateau, as the objective. General Graziani launched the attack, heralded by a formation flight of 200 bombing and fighting 'planes, using three divisions of Italian troops and two divisions of Tripoli forces, all motorised, even including huge motorised \vatertanks. The advance was preceded by two days' skirmishing, in which whippet tanks and light troops, emerging in line on the waterholes in the neighbourhood, where they have been based for two months, swept back the Abyssinian screen. Abyssinian Losses 18,000. Massed aeroplanes raining gas and high-explosive bombs spread death and terror among the Abyssinian irregulars who poured back, choking as a result of the new poison gas. No concentration of troops or hutments are reported to have escaped. Seven mosques were demolished at Daror, where the dead, including civilians, are estimated at 4000. Behind the aeroplanes roared 350 tanks, belching liquid flame and shells from quick-firing guns. A hail of machine gun bullets assisted the troops to reach a line from Deenleh to Kablin, Beridaleh and Masara, representing an average penetration of 3 1 miles from Ualual. The tanks are now skirmishing ahead, preparing for a new advance. The Abyssinians, it is estimated, lost 18,000 men, but the concentration of 200,000 with foreign advisers, about Harrar, Jijiga and Tomsa is as yet untouched. They have been ordered by the Emperor to defend only the edge of the plateau and the mountainous areas. Meanwhile, Swiss engineers working near Webbe Shibeli report that Abyssinians numbering 60,000 crossed the headwaters of the Juba River and are marching towards Italian Somaliland with a view to cutting the Italian communications, leading to an expectation of a decisive battle near Gerlogubi.