BATTLEFIELD SCENE

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 81, 30 December 1940, Page 2

BATTLEFIELD SCENE

In The Wake Of Italian t Flight LITTERED GROUND SYDNEY, December 20. The “Sydney Morning Herald” war correspondent with the A.I.F. cabled from Mersa Matruh on December 19 the following dispatch:— To well beyond Solium the battlefield is silent and deserted, except for convoys ploughing through dust six inches deep. It seems that the Italian Air Force has taken as bad a beating as the army, for in two days’ driving beyond Sidf Barrani I did not see a single Italian plane. Some days have passed since Sidi Barrani or Bug Bug was bombed, and nowhere has the road been broken by a recent bombing. Our fighters overhead are constantly flying low along the road leading west. Columns of prisoners are coming back, and our troops are consolidating their positions. “Fabulous Material.” Fabulous quantities of abandoned material are scattered over the battlefield. Near Sidi Barrani I saw more than 30 guns—field, medium, and antiaircraft —in one group. One is seldom out of sight of at least two guns standing whore the Italians left them. Between Sidi Barrani and Bug Bug much of the abandoned material has been collected into dumps, with hand grenades carefully sorted out from uniforms, rifles, tins of food, range finders, telephones, pistols, boots, blankets, and boxes of ammunition. Beyond Bug Bug the equipment is still iving where the Italians left it. Dead are still lying where they fell. There is hardly a yard in this section where there is not some piece of equipment lying. •Between Bug Bug and Solium there is the scene of what must have been one of the toughest battles of the campaign. Everything is lying just as it was when the encounter ended. Some of our tanks when racing forward got bogged and found themselves facing 12 Italian guns. The tracks show how other tanks coming up under the cover of a sandhill suddenly enfiladed the Italian gnus and knocked out every crew before they even had time to turn their guns round on the new attackers. The rest of the Italians at this post must have fled in confusion. Hats, rifles, and coats are scattered along the road. A dozen tanks were left behind. Overlooking Solium is an escarpment a mile and a half from the sea. There are two roads where the Italians made their last stand.

The Navy plastered Solium as thoroughly as’Sidi Barrani. In neither place'is there a single roof left. From the escarpment the outlines of Fort Capuzzo can be seen and smoke over Bardia. From a few miles west of Mersa Matruh onward, it is heavy going for the steam trucks travelling toward the front. A big section of the road west of Mersa Matruh has been torn up, and detours must be made through tracks where the dust is getting deeper and finer every day. The Italians had. unfortunately, only half-made the road from Sidi Barrani to Bug Bug, but, fortunately, they abandoned their road-making machinery when they retreated. Salvage Put to Use. The captured material is being put to good use. Excellent medical equipment has been salvaged and put to use. Members of the R.A.F. are using Italian recovery vehicles and motorcycles. The car in which I am writing has been running on Italian petrol all today, and the occupants have been drinking excellent Italian tinned milk ami mineral water. Every man of an .English regiment in whose camp I slept for a night and a day was keeping himself warmer with Italian blankets, clothing, and food.