"LIKE WILDCATS."

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 69, 22 March 1941, Page 9

"LIKE WILDCATS."

SCOTS NEAR KEREN.

Fierce Mountain Fighting In Struggle For Stronghold. Briti>h Official Wireless. j (Reed. 1..10 p.m.) RI'CBY. Mar. 21. _ The violence of the actions round Keren can be gauged lrum to-day's Koxal Air 1* orce Ali<l il!e Kast c<»uimuni(|ue ami an <li>j>atch dated yesterday. Kvery arm of offenec and defence has been used on both sides, with fierce artillery actions, heavy bombing by strong formations of the Koyal Air Force, and the infantry fighting with grenades and bayonets. The Italians have employed trench mortars, and two of these with their officers and crews have been captured. Scotti.-li troops have fought like wild cats, and one Scottish captain came down a hill bringing with him an Italian captain who had sought to take" him prisoner with a urcstling hold. They pressed forward from a iott strongly held by the British towards Keren and met one of the fiercest counter-attacks of the Alpini. whom they back in hand-to-hand fighting. With troops of a Midland regiment by their sides the Scots pressed up the slopes to within about two miles of the past fort on the road outside Keren. On the right Hank Indian troops l»cstrodo the fort. The road t.rans|>ort and supply arrangements are working marvellously, and the mule trains liavc apparently solved the problem of perpetual motion. Despite temperatures of 1 Ofi degrees in the shade, munitions are being brought up to advanced posts anil water supplies maintained for the troops. Considerable nuinliers of prisoners have been taken, including a wireless operating stall". Investment a Slow Process. | It. is once again emphasised that the investment of this stronghold will be a slow process. The Italians are re-istin? stronglv and are under tho general direction and possibly the personal leadership of the strong and capable Duke of Aosta. While in Northern Italian Somaliland British forces are extending action east of the Fafan River (north of the .lulu Riverl. which llows south-cast to Mogadishu. it is reliably learned in-London that the Sultanate of Mijjartcin in this area is in open re\olt against the Italians. This is not taken necessarily to mean actual armed re\olt. but rather collapse of rule and order, following the withdrawal of Italian patrols. There a.ppears to be no widespread movement among the native levies. (Jenerally the levies appear to be fighting loyally in the Keren area. The official Nairobi communique states that Imperial troops occupied Hargei-a yesterday morning. Operations to join tip with the forces from Berbera are proceeding. Hargeisa. a trade route centre, lies near the frontier of British Somaliland and Abyssinia, and on the road from Berliera to .lijiua'. about .V» miles from each. Presumably the troops that occupied Hargeisa were operating from J j ji-.i. The Italians have again sustained serious casualties in an unsuccessful counter-attack, and a number of prisoners were left in the of the Imperial trooj*-. The operation continues to develop slowly but satisfactorily. Up in central and southern Abyssinia pressure in all areas is being maintained on the withdrawing Italian forcoa.