BRITISH ATTACK CONTINUES

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23203, 14 December 1940, Page 11

BRITISH ATTACK CONTINUES

Gathering Momentum

Of Offensive air force hammers ITALIAN BASES

(orrrzD press association—coptiugkt.) (Received December 13, 11 p.m.) LONDON, December 13. The latest reports from the Western Desert indicate that the British offensive against the Italians is gathering momentum. The British forces are pushing forward with such speed that the official communiques have barely kept up with the advance. It has become clear that earlier reports of the capture of 20,000 prisoners were an under-estimation. The exact number of Italians captured is not yet known, however, as the British forces have had no time to

make a'tally. The Royal Air Force retains its mastery of the air by hammering enemy aerodromes and bases with such a weight of bombs that the Italians have little opportunity of retaliatory action. In one raid on a single aerodrome? the British aeroplanes, in an attack which lasted all night, dropped 20 tons of bombs.

The mastery of the air has enabled the Royal Air • Force to keep up a continual and merciless attack on the enemy and Blackshirt .troops in large numbers have been attacked and machine-gunned and thrown into utter confusion. - While the land and air forces have thus been employed,, the Royal Navy has been doing its part in the shattering attack on the Italians by shelling their bases at Solium and Benghazi.

The special correspondent of “The Times” at Cairo says a, British spokesman at headquarters would not confirm rumours of the fall of Solium, but as all accounts agree that the Italian withdrawal threatens to assume the proportions of a rout it is not impossible that some of the advanced British forces have reached Solium. British airmen continue to inflict the deadliest blows on enemy aerodromes, troop concentrations, and motor transport columns. Some aerodromes have practically been bombed out of existence. Others are usable only with

Sabastiano Gallina, who is a Corps Commander, and Generals Amando Pescatore and Mezzari, who are Divisional Commanders, A graphic account of the recent fighting is given in a dispatch by Reuter’s special correspondent in the Western jjesert. He states that the British troops are in high spirits, and jubilant at the success after long months of waiting.

He adds that an outstanding feature of the attack on Sidi Barrani was the clockwork co-ordination between the Army, the Navy, and the Royal Air Force. The initial thrust at the Italian advance camp at Makale took the defenders by surprise, and the camp fell to the British in two hours. The Italian general commanding the flying armoured column, General Maletti, was killed. , West of Sidi Barrani the • attack developed with amazing rapidity, and one enemy post after another fell before the fierce onslaught in which artillery, infantry, and armoured forces participated. . The infantry, at a number of points, encountered strong resistance from

difficulty. ' The correspondent adds that the importance of the British victory may be found in the wealth of material captured. There is so much of it that the Army has not even begun to know what it includes. Its sorting

and convoying are giving the Army a pretty problem, as is the feeding, particularly the supply of water, of the prisoners. The British troops were carrying only sufficient water rations for the immediate needs anticipated in the action, and even the Army commissariat Is finding difficulty in coping with the sudden arrival of 20,000 empty

the Blackshirts, but the advance could not be stemmed. A strong British patrol on the escarpment 16 miles from Sidi Barrani overcame a Libyan division, thus playing an important part in the attack. There are indications, stales Reuter’s correspondent, that the Italian forces were completely sur-

mouths. In spite of blinding sandstorms the army of the Nile continues its advance towards Libya, driving the retreating Italians through a long harrow gorge leading through Solium to Bardia. It is estimated that the Italians de-

stroyed, captured, or bottled up, number about 40,000, and include many crack Blackshirt units. The British forces round Sidi Barrani yesterday were occupied in clearing up the battlefield, which extends over 200 square miles. The special correspondent of the ’'Daily Telegraph” in the Western Desert says the British attacks developed along a ' constantly shifting semi-circle with Sidi Barrani as the hub. From the first onslaught, the operations developed with bewildering ’ intricacy over the whole tawny, rockstrewn desert. Individual detachments, skirmishing miles into enemy temto/y, started a series of pitched battles. It is impossible to give a coherent account of the operations until reports have been collated, but the satisfaction and optimism of British Headquarters in the desert are undisguised. The “Daily Telegraph’s” diplomatic correspondent says it can now be stated

prised by the size of the British forces thrown against them, and also by the intensity of the attack. In spite of dust storms, which made the desert like one of London’s best •‘pea-soup fogs,” the British forces pressed the attack home. Flying low, British aeroplanes machine-gunned enemy posts, and as one Wing Commander said, “A good time was had by all.” The announcement of General Maletti’s death has caused special satisfaction ji Cairo, ’because it confirms the defeat of the Italian flying armoured desert column which had a considerable nuisance value and which was once a potential threat

to the British southern flank. It is officially announced in India that Indian troops assisted in the capture of Sidi/Barrani. Marshal Graziani is reported in Rome to have withdrawn the Libyan Camel Corps and the Libyan Cavalry from the Western DCsert and thrown 1000 motorised units into action in an effort to halt the British advance. ■ It is unofficially reported that a terrific series of battles took place round the wells and water holes in the Western Desert. There were some wild melees, British and Italian tanks and armoured cars were so entangled

that Mr R. A, Eden, the Secretary of State for War, went to Egypt convinced that the British forces should take the offensive. It. is understood that Mr Churchill had no advance information of the actual date of the launching of the offensive* he and the Army Command remaining content to 1 leave matters in the able hands of Sir Archibald Wavell, British Com-mander-in-Chief in the Middle East.

that , the crews leaped from their machines and fought with hand grenades. ' . The latest information available m London regarding the fighting in the Western Desert leads authorities there to entertain good hopes that the greater part of the enemy troops in Sidi Barrani. and its immediate, neigh-

It is now revealed that incessant attacks for weeks, by a famous mechanised regiment kept open a gap in the enemy’s front position, frustrating attempts to complete a chain of fortified

points. ' ' ' The breach was still open on December 9, and motorised forces were !; able to drive in according to plan. The brilliant operations carried out In the Western Desert have now brought the British and Allied forces well west of Sidi Barrani, the strongly held Italian fortress which was cap*x tured on Wednesday. More than 20,000 Italian prisoners have been taken, in- ' binding, many. Blackshirts nf .the. Italian tollitia. kjf, Eight, enemy, .aeroplanes, .were, .shot down on Wednesday, and one on the L v K*ound was destroyed.,.... . BaLC Hundreds of Italian officers have been WvCaptured. The three generals captured i PBfe'io V/ednesdayyaghting were Genera]

bourhood have been bottled up and possibly captured. An authoritative military commentator put this force at somewhere about two divisions. If this assumption is correct, no doubt is felt that the very large, stock of war material built up at Sidi Barrani since its’ capture by the Italians on September 18 becomes, as one expert ex-pressed-ft, “a gift." The exact strength of the Italian divisions -in this area is not definitely known, but it may be placed at from 14.000 to 17,000 each The Rome wireless had conceded the loss of Sidi Barrani, the. announcer saying: "For the moment. Wavell has Captured Sidi Barrani.. of it?"

Both heavy and light units of the Mediterranean Fleet are continually harassing Italian communications. Our ships heavily bombed focal points in the Italian retreat at Solium, near the Libya-Egypt frontier, and Bardia on the Libyan coast. No damage or casualties have been suffered by any of our units during these operations. Other British naval units carried put a bombardment of Kismayu in Italian Somaliland, damaging Italian supplies. The enemy coastal batteries replied ineffectively to our fire.”

While in London there is a disinclination to speculate on the full results of the success in the Western Desert, in Egypt and throughout the Middle East it is regarded as being of immense significance, not only because of the effect on the military campaign, but as constituting Sidi Barrani as a fairly important city. In Turkey, the development of the British offensive is being watched with the closest interest, and informed commentators there even declare that the attack on Sidi Barrani may be regarded as a turning point in the war.

Airman Member of Parliament— Flying Officer J, R. Rathbone, M.P. (Cornwall) is reported missing in action. He was mobilised in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve in September, 1939. —London, December 12.