ADVANCE FROM LAKE CHAD

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23801, 21 November 1942, Page 5

ADVANCE FROM LAKE CHAD

NO CONFIRMATION OF REPORTS LONDON, Nov. 19. Reports that Allied forces are advancing from the Lake Chad area are still unconfirmed. The nature of the country and the enormous distances involved make it unlikely that any substantial forces are operating on the southern frontier of Libya. It is 900 miles from Fort Lamy, near Lake Chad, to Kufra or Murzuk, in Libya, and a further 500 miles from Kufra to El Agheila or from Murzuk to Tripoli. Nevertheless, the commander of the Fighting French troops in the Sahara (General Leclerc) is known to be extremely enterprising, and his men have in the past been able to make daring raids deep into Italian territory. ,

ARREST OF GENERAL WEYGAND

GERMAN SPOKESMAN’S STATEMENT LONDON. Nov. 19. There seems to be some uncertainty about the position of General Weygand, former French Commander-in-Chief in North Africa. The Rome radio quotes a German spokesman in Paris as confirming the arrest of General Weygand. The spokesman, who is reported to have said that "one Giraud is quite enough,” added that General Weygand had been taken to Germany. A well-known French trade union leader who has escaped to Britain said that General Weygand waa arrested by the Gestapo, but was released after 24 hours. He had been offered the command of the French Army in North Africa by Marshal Petain, but had refused. He was arrested when the Germans marched into the unoccupied zone. According to the Berlin radio 45 officials of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs have been relieved of their posts because they have been working in the interests of Britain and America.

SURGEON-LIEUTENANT DECORATED

GALLANTRY IN ACTION IN MEDITERRANEAN (8.0. W.) RUGBY, Nov. 19. The great gallantry of a surgeonlieutenant of the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve, who was recently awarded the D,S.C.. has now been disclosed by the Admiralty. SurgeonLieutenant A. W. Clark was serving in the British destroyer Airedale when she was attacked by aircraft in the Mediterranean. Bomb hits wrecked the upper deck and set fire to the boiler-room, and seriously injured several men. Surgeon-Lieutenant Clark helped to move the wounded to the sick bay, and tended them there till the ship took a list. It became obvious that she could not last long, and while the attacks still continued the order was given to abandon her. SurgeonLieutenant Clark had the wounded moved to the deck, where he lashed them to baulks of timber so that they could be ferried to another ship nearby. In this way every wounded man was transported to safety.