LULL IN EGYPT

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23716, 14 August 1942, Page 5

LULL IN EGYPT

NEW AXIS EFFORT EXPECTED

ROMMEL’S SUPPLY , PROBLEMS (Received August 13, 11.30 p.m.) (N.Z.P.A.) LONDON, August 12. The Cairo correspondent of “The Times” says: “The lull on the Alamein front has lasted several weeks. Doutless it is the calm before the storm. It is not to be expected that Rommel will dally while the rich Nile Delta and also Alexandria are almost within sight, without making another determined effort. “The pause is imposed on Rommel by the necessity to bring up reinforcements and supplies over long and difficult communications. The Italians and Germans lost heavily in lorries in June and July. They are husbanding their vehicles and making great use of barges and lighters, which, however, are being heavily punished by British and American bombers in the discharge ports and also while they are creeping along the coast. The explosions and fires nightly at Tobruk must greatly complicate the Axis supply problem. “Recently captured German prisoners show that the new drafts are either semi-trained boys or men over 40 from the garrisons in Greece and Crete.”

A message from Egypt says that fighter pilots of the United States Air Force are operating there. They have been distributed among Royal Air Force fighter squadrons to learn desert flying. Yesterdav’s Cairo communique said; “On the night of August 10-11 our patrols were active over the whole front. Casualties were inflicted on enemy working parties in the northern sector. Yesterday artillery exchanges took place in the northern and central sectors.”

Speaking on the German radio, Marshal Rommel told of the ordeal the German troops have undergone in the Western Desert. He said that the battle there was exacting many sacrifices. The Germans were now fighting a defensive battle after reaching the very gates of Egypt.