AUSTRALIANS BREAK STRONG FRENCH LINE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 137, 12 June 1941, Page 7

AUSTRALIANS BREAK STRONG FRENCH LINE

RIVER CROSSED

Vichy Troops Fighting

Delay Action

f'.:c. 2 p.m. JERUSALEM, June 11

, Australian troops to-day fought their way to Adloun, 10 miles north of the Litani River and 12 miles south of Sidon, says the Australian official war correspondent. Advancing up the coast the Australians put a bridge across the Litani and broke the French line, which was the strongest fortified line between the frontier and Beirut. The French are now fighting a delaying action. Australian engineers working at top speed in the moonlight flung a bridge of ten pontoons across the Litani, enabling guns, infantry, ambulances, wireless trucks, supply lorries and all kinds of armament to pass over and reinforce the men who were fighting ' around Adloun. A South Australian battalion, which was in the van behind the mobile forces, faced strong resistance from machine-guns and trench mortars, but an Australian mobile force steadily overcame the resistance from opposing tanks and armoured cars, most of which were inferior to the Australians'. It was a great relief to the advancing infantry, as well as to the engineers, when they found that a small courageous advance Party had succeeded in preventing the destruction of the next bridge in the path. This was held against greatly superior odds all day by two officers and 18 men of a special force. As a result of the day's push to Adloun 400 opposing troops were captured, together with motor vehicles and other material. The front is still in a fluid state. A Jrench counter-attack failed in the face of concentrated machine-gun a nd artillery fire.