ATTACK ON DESERT FORTRESS

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23717, 15 August 1942, Page 7

ATTACK ON DESERT FORTRESS

SUCCESS OF BRITISH TROOPS

(8.0. W.) RUGBY,. August 13. Describing a raid in the Western Desert on a small desert fortress, an English lance-corporal says: “We went in with fixed bayonets between our tanks and Bren carriers. We had crept up during the night and we waited for the first light. Isolated machine-gun nests tried to stop us, but we soon had them bolting from their hide-outs.” , „ His section passed through the litter of the fortress to burnt-out enemy tanks, their advance being enlivened by occasional incidents when some of the enemy went to the ground in odd corners, but the British forces “winkled” them out. About half a mile north of the position, they halted and waited for the enemy countersttsck “At 8 p.m. the enemy came straight across our front,” continued the lancecorporal, “firing high explosives, tracers, and incendiaries, while his artillery laid down a creeping barrage. Our tanks, in a defensive circle behind us, were all around the fort and our field-guns and anti-tank two-pounders banged back shell for shell. Most of the enemy's hits were scored on his own abandoned lorries and dump. “Eventually the enemy suddenly withdrew. Four German tanks again attacked next morning, scoring four direct hits on a British tank. After a pause our tanks opened fire and the Germans started to withdraw, but our tanks stopped two of the enemy machines, and at 900 yards scored a direct hit on a third, setting it on fire. Our tanks suffered no serious damage and all the crews were unharmed. In the wrecked German tanks we found two men dead.”