HUNS ADMIT GREAT STRENGTH OF ALLIES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 255, 28 October 1942, Page 3

HUNS ADMIT GREAT STRENGTH OF ALLIES

VIOLENT ATTACKS

"Axis Forces Face Hardest Demands" Roc. 1 p.m. LONDON. Oct. 27. The German communique says the Egypt, battle is continuing with undiminished violence. The British yesterday threw in fresh forces and tried vainly to break the Italian and German positions. The Italians and Germans destroyed 111 tanks aiad 38 armoured cars. Italian and German planes are increasingly attacking British rear communications and shot down 14 Allied machines over the battle area and the Mediterranean. The Italian communique repeats the German, but claims that in all 22 Allied planes were shot down. It says one Italian submarine has failed to return to its base, and one enemy submarine has been sunk.

The German news agency said the ftt.h Army has brought up reserves and extended the offensive to the central sector, but nowhere has it pained a decisive advantage. The British attempted to turn the German position from the Qattara Depression and lost several tanks. The German newspaper Volkischer Beobachter declared that the Allied offensive in the Western Desert was being carried out with extraordinarily strong forces. It need hardly be emphasised, says the paper, that the Axis forces have to face the hardest demands. It is obvious that the enemy has concentrated his war effort in North Africa. The Berlin radio reported tf at British troops from the east Df Mersa Matruh early to-day attemp *d a landing in speed boats behind •. te positions on tne El Alamein front, but Italian bombers caused their w ithdr a\ al

A Rome radio dispatch from El Alameln states that Axis tanks, supported by infantry, engaged British tanks in bitter fights. The battle continued all Sunday night, and on Monday morning even increased in violence. The radio added: "Although the battle is not yet over, we are in a position to state that the Italian and German forces have stood up to the powerful attacks unleashed by the enemy." The Brussels radio says the Allies in North Africa have 1,000,000 men, 1000 tanks and a large number of aircraft.

London newspapers to-day publish the first radio pictures from the Western Desert. The most dramatic one shows soldiers in tin hats and shorts leaping to the attack with fixed bayonets through a hail of enemy shellfire. Rommel's most powerful counterattacks on the Egyptian front have been directed against the Australians, who beat off five distinct blows within a few hours, says the Dally Telegraph correspondent with the Bth Army.