ROMMEL LAUNCHES ARMOURED ATTACK

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 206, 1 September 1942, Page 4

ROMMEL LAUNCHES ARMOURED ATTACK

01V DESERT FLAM Fighting Flares Up After Month's Lull L'.P.A. and British Wireless Rec. 2.30. p.m. LONDON, Aug. 31. The War Office issued the folloeving statement early on Tuesday morning: "For some days past there have been signs of renewed activity on Rommel's front, and early this morning German forces, including armoured units, pushed forward against our southern flank in the neighbourhood of El Himeimat, where they were immediately engaged by our light forces and fighting Is on a major scale. A weak enemy thrust, mainly by Italians, against our main front, was repulsed with loss to the enemy." A Cairo communique issued earlier reports that Allied patrols engaged enemy working parties on Saturday night. Yesterday there was nothing to report from the land forces. On Saturday night our medium bombers, light bombers and naval aircraft continued their raids over the battle area and Tobruk. The same night our bombers and torpedocarrying aircraft successfully attacked shipping off the Cyrenaican coart. Three ships were hit, two being left ablaze. In combats over the Alamein area yesterday our fighters destroyed at least three Messerschmitts and damaged others. Also an enemy tanker in the Mediterranean was left blazing from stem to stern. < Two enemy planes were destroyed last night (hiring small-scale activity over Allied base landing grounds. Rising Tempo of Air War. There is growing evidence of the Rtill rising tempo of the air offensive in the desert. Long-range fighters have been out to-day attacking bases far behind the enemy l*ies. Two German troop-carrying planes were shot down. British and American heavy and medium bombers attacked Tobruk. where the harbour and shipping were the main objectives. Three torpedo- carrying planes ranged over the Mediterranean looking for Axis supply ships. Enemy shipping with a destroyer escort was sighted. A 6000-ton vessel was hit, and was last seen motionless and on fire with a streak of oil in its wake two miles long. It was also giving off a series of explosions. It is probable that the plane accounted for a small arms ammunition ship. A message from Malta reports "all quiet" over the Island for the past 24 hours. This makes a total of 48 raidfree hours, a record for the year. Gibraltar's Underworld "The new Gibraltar has a brain centre hidden from attack and able to control any form of offensive without sending a single man into the open," a recent visitor to Gibraltar said in a broadcast. "This is the secret at the key to the Mediterranean, •where men have gone underground ■with a new idea in warfare."

Gibraltar could be attacked from the land, the sea and the air, he said, but even if invasion troops were to swarm over the rock fortress it still could not be taken. Every defender would reach safety while the enemy would be harassed and in constant danger. The commentator described tunnels in the rock 1000 f£ct deep, where even the discharge of giant guns above could not be heard. Along these tunnels there was a gigantic industrial installation where all the activities of a busy city could be carried on, even the running of roads and railways. The equipment included a powerhouse, a hospital, kitchens with electric ovens, comfortable barracks and repair shops where practically any kind of gun could be overhauled. There were also bakeries, libraries, cinemas and huge stores of food and ammunition. "I was not allowed to see how the new underground Gibraltar will attack when everyone has been driven underground," the commentator said, "but even if every antiaircraft gun on the rock were smashed, it would still be decidedly hazardous for any Axis aircraft to go near Gibraltar."