KEREN AND HARAR

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 73, 28 March 1941, Page 8

KEREN AND HARAR

Vital Eritrea Stronghold Captured After Heavy Siege

LONDON, March 27.

Keren, Eritrea, has fallen to British forces which entered the town at seven o'clock this morning, according to a 8.8.C. announcement. In addition to British and South African troops, Indian regiments took part in the final assault.

Hundreds of Italian prisoners are already pouring into the British lines. A great number of them are from crack Italian regiments, and among the captured officers is a colonel.

Italians retreating towards Asmara, capital of Eritrea, are being heavily bombed.

The capture of Keren, which is considered the key fortsess of the Italian military plan, is considered to be of tremendous importance.

A special Cairo communique announcing the* fall of Keren and Harar states that after heavy fighting for nearly a fortnight under the most difficult physical conditions, but admirably supported by the R.A.F., Imperial forces have again defeated numerically superior enemy forces, says a British Official Wireless message. The military and air forces of the Empire have co-operated in the capture of Keren, which, with its 10,000 inhabitants, of whom 1 000 are Italians, lies in a rocky fastness 4000 ft above sea level. The country round Keren has been descrJved by experienced Indian army officers as worse than anything to be found on the North-West Frontier. British and Indian troops, whose individual courage and tenacity alone made possible the first penetration of the area, were able to take possession of important positions overlooking the town by scaling the almost perpendicular escarpment. They were met by hand grenades and trench mortar fire, which the Italians, with the obvious advantage of occupying positions along the cliff edge, preferred to employ rather than rifle or machinegun. Seven heavy counter-attacks were launched by the Italians during the many days of the battle. They were all beaten off. Although enemy losses were very severe, the Italians fought better at Keren than at any other stage of the African campaign. Their morale weakened, however, under continuous bombardment from the air and the relentless pressure of the military forces. British forces, continuing their westward thrust from Jijiga, eastern Abyssinia, through the recently-conquered Marda Pass, occupied Harar to-night. The town was not strongly fortified, but its capture seriously threatens the Addis Ababa-Jibuti railway. Harar is the second largest town in Abyssinia.