ADVANCE ACROSS CYRENAICA

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23798, 18 November 1942, Page 3

ADVANCE ACROSS CYRENAICA

Derna And Mekili Occupied ENEMY FLIGHT CONTINUES (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright.) (Rec. 11 p.ni.) LONDON, November 17. To-day’s Cairo communique says; “Our troops have . occupied Derna and Mekili. The Bth Army continues its pursuit of the enemy. Owing to bad flying conditions air activity was on a reduced scale. A Junkers 88 was shot down m the sea oft Port Said. We lost one aircraft.” The official news of the occupation of Derna was not unexpected, as earlier reports said the enemy was the town and had blown up the road in three places. British armoured cars waited on high ground near the town while sappers went forward to clear away enemy mines. Mekili is one-third of the way from Tmimi to Benghazi by the inland route. The capture of Mekili is the first news that the British forces are advancing along the inland road as well as along the coast. Correspondents say that if the 81h Army can get to Benghazi quickly enough it may be able to cut off a large part of the Axis forces. The enemy, although putting up almost no fighting resistance, is doing everything possible to slow down the British advance by demolition of roads and bridges and sowing minefields beside the roads.

Anotlv r report says the Bth Army is now approaching the Jebel Klakhdsr region, 50 miles beyond Derna. Longrange fighters operating from the newly-won Martuba air base are strafing the dwindling Afrika Korps as far as El Agheila. Martuba is the centre of Libya’s group of airfields. The Luftwaffe is now almost right out of Cyrenaica. The occupation of the whole area by land is only a matter of getting there. According to unconfirmed reports from Rome, Marshal Rommel. Marshal Keitel and General U. Cavallero (Chief of the Italian General Staff) flew there from Tripoli last night, says the Berne correspondent of the “New York Times.” Marshal Rommel and Marshal Keitel later flew north, after several hours’ conversation with Marshal Goering. Reuter’s correspondent on the German frontier states that it is authentically reported that Marshal Rommel is in Munich, completing important discussions with Hitler, Himmler, and others. Attempts to Delay Pursuit The Exchange Telegraph Agency’s correspondent with the Sth Army states: “Our pursuit rolls on. There is the same story, day after day, of road blocks torn out by German dynamite, sometimes the dimensions of a landslide, as at Solium and Halfaya Pass, where whole si' 1 ' of mountains were torn down. Bridges over wadis have been destroyed, and thousands of mines scattered in the sands along the margins of the road, with sharp-pointed nails thrown on the surface of the road, but in spite of all difficulties and the strain on vehicles and drivers, our great Army is rolling steadily forward with oi r armour directly contacting the fleeing enemy.” • The Berlin radio stated that the British Army’s pressure in Libya is increasing. “They are taking advantage of numerous roads and rocky ground to bring up heavy weapons and push with growing strength against the flanks of the German rearguards," it stated. “The relentless hammering of the enemy’s transport columns goes on day after day,” states the Cairo correspondent of “The Times.” “There is no sign of an enemy attempt to rally. Allied airmen delivered low-level attacks yesterday all the way across the hilly country between Cyrene and Benghazi. Our airmen also concentrated on the open, rolling sand dunes between Agedabia and El Agheila, where at least 24 vehicles were destroyed and many damaged. “The enemy columns are now stretched right along the Gulf of Sirte into Tripolitania. The Royal Air Force strafed an enemy column about 60 miles south of the Gialo Oasis. The

column consisted of armoured vehicles, transports, and guns. Gialo, which is right out in the desert, is an outpost for the protection of the coastal road between Cyrenaica and Tnpolitania.” The Germans are fighting only small delaying actions. With them are a few Italians, who were rescued from the debacle on the northern-front. All those who- fought on the southern or central sectors have been destroyed. The Derna road, on which the Allied forward elements have been travelling all day, is still closed and blown up in' many partsrand it has been mined everywhere —*n the side of the road, and in the adjoining scrubby sands. Lorries, tractors, trucks, and. other motorised vehicles are moving towards El Agheila, while Royal Air Force, United Stc. es, and South African fight-er-bombers are massacring the remnants of Rommel’s Afrika, Korps. Yesterday they destroyed 83 vehicles. The road between Benghazi and Agedabia must present the same aspect. Possible Stand in El Agheila Area A. correspondent vyith; the Sth Army says present indications are that Marshal Rommel, who has already received a few reinforcements and expects more by way of Tunis and Tripoli, will try to hold the Allied forces m the El Agheila region and reorganise his troops. Even though the Bth Army meets with no resistance in Cyrenaifca. it must be several days before;- « reaches El Agheila. about 300 miles from Mar tuba, the furthest point officially reported as reached in the pursuit of the Axis forces. . ; A communique from United States Army Hearquarters in Cairo, describing the part of American aeroplanes in operations in Libya, mentions that" a fire was started at Benghazi on Saturday night which was visible for 60 miles. The communique also says the missions of American fighters against the retreating enemy were termed “.most successful.”

OPERATIONS IN MOROCCO

TRIBUTE TO U.S.COMMANDERS NAVAL POSITION IN MEDITERRANEAN (Rcc. 11 p.m.) LONDON. Nov. 17. The Allied Commander-m-Chief in North Africa (Lieutenant-General Dwight D. Eisenhower) paid a tribute to Major-General G. S. Patton and Rear-Admiral H. K. Hewitt for their conduct of the operations on the west coast of Morocco. He said the work of unblocking and improving the harbours was progressing satisfactorily. It was obvious that General Patton had the situation in hand. General Nogues was co-operating -effectively and enthusiastically. The Morocco radio said the Sultan of Morocco received General Nogues, and Major-General G. S. Patton, who gave assurances that the Allied troops had been ordered to respect Moslem customs. Correspondents with the American task force in Morocco say Safi was captured after a few hectic hours. Two old"American destroyers, stripped and with their foretops removed. and packed with infantry trained for street fighting and armed to the teeth, manoeuvred through the minefield into the harbour at full speed. One ran itself on to the beach and the troops swarmed over the side and bolted into the town, while the destroyers’ guns pounded the coastal artillery. “Four American assault boats on their way to Fedhala lost their bearings in the darkness, and found themselves in Casablanca, near an unidentifiable destroyer, which opened fire with machine-guns, The leader of the first boat warned off the other boats, and ordered his men to stand with their hahds up. The destroyer again fired, blasting the boat with three-inch shells, and killing four men. The remainder jumped overboard and were picked up by the destroyer. French sailors explained that they had no alternative but to obey orders and fire. They were forced to resist for fear of reprisals against Frenchmen in France. Naval Clash Claimed Paris radio reports that a naval battle is occurring between an Italian squadron, supported by a German squadron, and British and American naval squadrons, off the North African coast. It is officially stated at Allied Force Headquarters: “The Royal Navy maintains control of the western Mediterranean and its approaches. This naval force has suffered losses, but these have been small in proportion to the size of the operations, and the casualties, on the whole, have been light. To-day we took into custody an officer and the crew of a U-boat sunk off the North African coast. Small French military units have begun to co-operate with the eastern and centre task forces at their stations. The clearance and maintenance of ports and harbours proceed.”

The Vichy radio says a British naval unit off Algeciras attacked and sank a

MR CHURCHILL CRITICISED

STATEMENT ABOUT BRITISH EMPIRE MR WILLKIE DISCUSSES POST-WAR PLANNING (Rcc. 7 p.m.) NEW YORK, Nov. 18. Sharply criticising Mr Churchill’s recent declaration that he was not liquidating the British Empire, Mr Wendell Willkie, addressing the New York “Herald-Tribune” forum, urged the United Nations to develop immediately a plan to make the materials of self-development available to all nations after the war. Mr Willkie said: “This cannot be accomplished by mere declarations of leaders, as in the Atlantic Charter, when one of the two principals thereto in the last few days has seemingly defended the old imperialistic order and declared to a shocked world. ‘We mean to hold our own.’ Unless* the people of the United States, Britain. Russia, China, and all the other United Nations, are agreed on thenpurposes, then idealistic expressions of hope as embodied in the Atlantic Charter will live merely to mock us, as did Wilson’s Fourteen Points, “The four freedoms will not be accomplished by declarations of those momentarily in power. They will become real only if the peoples of the world forge them into actuality. Political internationalism will not accomplish them. Real freedom must rest on economic internationalism.” Mr Willkie continued: “Our most immediate common need is, of course, a united military plan arrived at by a strategy board representative not only of Britain and America, but representing likewise our other Allies. Even such obviously essential cooperation has not yet been brought about. "We cannot fight this war in silence. Whatever our experts say, it is the utmost folly, and just short of suicide, to say that citizens should hold their tongues, because if we fight in silence those same experts will in the end—even by winning the war—win nothing but blood and ashes."