ITALIAN RETREAT TO NOWHERE

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 228, 23 June 1941, Page 8

ITALIAN RETREAT TO NOWHERE

Desperate Remnants In Abyssinia A THREADBARE ARMY (Received June 22, 7 p.m.) LONDON, June 21. A communique from the British headquarters in Cairo states; "In Abyssinia an Italian force in a position covering the River Dadessa was attacked by our troops and driven across the river to the west bank. In this operation the enemy sustained heavy losses in men and material.” A special correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” says that the Abyssinian campaign is practically over. A few thousand soldiers must still be mopped up, and there arc a few generals yet to surrender, but that is all.

Two main islands of Italians, the correspondent says, remain in the mountainous area north-west from Addis Ababa. Generals Nasi and Martini are commanding the scattered and threadbare army with their headquarters at Gondar, and their garrisons are dotted round the western shore of Lake Tana in an arc between Mota and Debra Tabor. Sentries Stay Awake. The Italian troops hug the main roads and towns, and their sentries never sleep, because the British are on their heels and the patriots have moved right into their lines. These northern remnants of Italy’s East African army of 200,000 men are tired, dispirited, frightened, and short of supplies. South-west from Addis Ababa, General Gazzera, who is the successor to the captured Duke of Aosta, has concentrated his main forces at Agaro, west of Jimma. They are bivouacking in steaming uplands where rain falls on 200 days a year. The. strange British army, con

sisting of English, Sudanese, Free French, East Africans, South Africans, West Africans, Belgians, Poles, Rhodesians and Abyssinians, is creeping up on the Italians from the'north-east, south-east and south-west. Three British columns are driving in on Jimma and mopping up on route. General Gazzera is conducting the Italian retreat skilfully, but it is a retreat to nowhere, and he knows it.