TOBRUK CUT OFF

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXIX, Issue 13235, 10 January 1941, Page 5

TOBRUK CUT OFF

[DEFENCES weaker LaZIANI MAY RETIRE TO GRA TRIPOLI L m XS Losiloo ’PLANES i AU ix AFRICA London. Jan. S. ' v 0 o Pe ms little doubt that lorfi?now practically cut off from | uk :Lt by British advance forces | e . I ‘ ha ve made it almost imposfor the Italians to either entei I > e f ve .;'! e in military Ks in London, which point out I 1 ’ while small patrols might get l al -r u .rid be impossible for the t leave without a light. in!, °\ -7 nt hi"- reinforcements ,B , , e ! l i“ewi«e be tin possible, n-lussmg the defences of Tobruk, } ‘indlv Mail” Western Desert rrespondtnt says they are by a ‘ ' v,'eaker than Bardia s. Ihe f,., k del cnees consist of two lines ‘ L deep. The garrison is be>Ve,l to be smaller than that at ; d a and the artillery and deteni equipment are correspondingly ~k er li is doubtful whether 1oEk can provide sufficient water for farce garrison for u long peiod. |ere has never been much water Keen Bardia and Benghazi. Ifl The Rome radio admitted that the filial is “might possibly be forced to iandon further Libyan territory, f added that new defence lines, deIned to hold off the British often Ive hud been established. The commentator was not indicated. Graziani’s Problem || rpjjg correspondent of The Times lavs military circles in 'Cairo believe ihat Marshal Graziani may even be impelled to retire to Tripoli. The ffiteruatives are to pour more men gto Tobruk and risk their being cut ‘off like the garrison at Bardia, or t 0 fall back to Benghazi, where they [would be isolated, as there is nothing between there and Tripoli, 500 miles away. _ [a From Cairo it is reported that a Air Force spokesman said that |ver 500 Italian planes had been shot down in Africa since Italy’s entry into the war, while British losses were about SO machines. || The situation in respect to prisonlb of war in the Western Desert is providing General Sir Archibald Wall! and his staff with a problem almost as difficult to solve as the actual military strategy. The huge number of prisoners has evoked the fag: “What is Libya’s principal export? Answer: Italians.” IA Rome communique says that British planes raided various localises in Cyrenaica, including Tripoli, ihere four people were killed and Ihii wounded. Italian planes, adds the communique, torpedoed a British destroyer near Solium.