HOW TOBRUK BROKE IRON AXIS DEFENCE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 283, 29 November 1941, Page 7

HOW TOBRUK BROKE IRON AXIS DEFENCE

ENEMY SURPRISED

Gunners Fired Until Barrels

Red Hot

t'nlted Press Association Copyright. Rec. 10.30 a.m. LONDON, Nov. 28. How the Royal Navy succeeded in secretly changing and reinforcing if, £°bruk garrison may never rally be told, but an eye-witness who sailed with one of the last batches of - reinforcements tells part of the story. He says they arrived on a Pitch-black night at a prearranged landing berth from an Egyptian port. British troops streamed from tne afterdeck at the same time as m® Australians, many of whom were wounded, clambered up forward.

Eager hands seized the precious stores and the whole operation went o« without a hitch. Nazi bombers were heard trying to probe the aarkness but the troops escaped detection. The ships quietly backed out and steamed for Egypt.

The move of the troops from tobruk was so bold and the secret so well guarded that the enemy was taken completely by surprise. Strong tank formations, accompanied by infantry, were one of the gladdest sights the garrison had seen. Irish Colonel in Command Then came the morning of the oreak-out, and when American Tomahawk fighter planes skimmed over J-he perimeter the soldiers cheered. 1 Re; tanks were under the command Wan Irish colonel who had already ied«two jnajor battles in the Solium area.- He was now leading the formation from an open tank turret and flying a large flag. He fought his way to the escarpbeating off counter-attacks and holding a new corridor open. XRe tanks held their own, despite ternfie enemy artillery fire. Meanwhile, our 26 and 60-pounder guns; manned by gunners stripped to the waist with sweat pouring uown their bodies, fired until the barrels were practically red hot. Jne Royal Army Service Corps carried on, bringing up ammunition and food, and the Royal Army Medical Corps operated from zero hour to the end. Doctors, orderlies and ambulance bearers attended wounded battlefield and evacuated tnem to the rear. One ambulance »ad its back blown away. The anver, laughing, said: "I was lucky t had no patients." .

A correspondent spoke to a wounded lad from Liverpool with reference to the attack on "Butch." ", e said: "Our lads came up champion. ■ Nothing stopped them." "A 1 Bavarian said: "We never thought you would break through."

While the British were occupied with the main attack the Poles on the western sector attacked the Italians from the rear and then returned to their lines, having, with hand-grenades and bayonets, killed over 100 and captured some prisoners with only one casualty. Many German Prisoners earlier m «ssage said that operations started at 4 a.m., the first "R,? + C ii V " S «.T be , the strongholds Butch, Jack, "Jill" and "Tiger" traHan ly P ° StS SO named by the Ausin ?hL tC f" wa ? aken in 15 minutes "L, the 'fee of furious machine-gun and mortar fire. "Jack," "Jill" and horns' flghttog mopped up after four P . T te? te J: i th^. in f antr y beaded for witPi * 1 Ade m to link up niU ?iperi K forces from the south. Operations by the end of the day g f on ? accor ding to plan in the tace of strenuous resistance from the strongest battalions. Some 1100 Germans and Italians were taken prisoner.

Artillery blasted enemy troops and gun positions. Never in the history of desert fighting has an artillery duel rcschsd such 3 crcs* cendo.

The Daily Mail correspondent with a cruiser squadron in the Central Mediterranean says: "We have been steaming at 25 knots, sweeping every supply route to Africa. We have not fired a single shot, but we share with other squadrons the satisfaction of knowing that not a ton of sea-borne supplies has reached the Axis forces in Libya since the battle was joined."