LIKE CLOCKWORK

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 143, 13 December 1940, Page 7

LIKE CLOCKWORK

THE BRITISH DRIVE j FINE CO-ORDINATION KAPIER-LIKE THRUST ___ i LONDON, December 12. A graphic account of the recent fighting is given in a dispatch today from Reuters special correspondent in the Western Desert. He says that the British troops are in the highest spirits and jubilant at the successes achieved after their months of waiting. . The outstanding feature of the drive on Sidi BaTrani, he declares, has been the clock-like co-ordination of the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force. The attack began with a rapierlike thrust in, the desert at Italian outposts lying inland on the escarpment. The enemy was taken by surprise, and the camp fell in two hours. It was here that an Italian general commanding a flying armoured column was killed.

Next, British mobile forces made a dash to the coast west of Sidi Barrani and carried out a swift and extensive flanking movement, encircling one enemy post after the other. The drive was' supplemented by a fierce direct onslaught by artillery, infantry, and armoured forces.

The Navy's contribution was a 12----hour bombardment of Sidi Barrani, and the Royal Air Force concentrated on keeping the -Italian bombers out of the air by continuous bombing and machine-gunning of their aerodromes.

Nevertheless, there was strong resistance from the Black Shirt Division.

Meanwhile, strong British mechanised patrols remained on the escarpment inland keeping an eye on the Italian force there, and at Maktila, 16 miles east of Sidi Barrani, the advancing British troops suddenly encountered a Libyan division.

There are indications, says Reuter, that the Italians found the British force surprising both in size and in the intensity of its attack. All the time, in spite of dust storms which made the desert look like a London "pea-souper" (fog), the Royal Air Force carried on their; ceaseless raids. The bombardment of Benina, the Italian advance base, was probably the heaviest bombing raid ever carried out in the Middle East. Flying low, British airmen machinegunned aerodrome personnel and started a fire which was visible 60 miles away. In the words of one wingcommander, "a good time was had by all." One pilot who flew over part of the fighting area said that all around were the charred remains of Italian armoured vehicles, and some undamaged vehicles were being driven away by the British.

becomes, as one expert expressed it, "a gift." The exact strength of the Italian divisions in this area :- not definitely known, but may be placed at from 14,000 to 17,000 each. The success of these operations is attributed here to very well planned strategy, based on loyal and close cooperation between the three fighting services. The three generals captured in yesterday's fighting were General Sebastiano Gallina, who is a corps commander, and Generals Amando Pescatore and Mezzari, who are divisional commanders. An Italian communique, while making no specific reference to the loss of Sidi Barrani, refers to fierce fighting west of that town, in the zone of Bukbuk. It says that the losses caused to the enemy in men and material were heavy and adds significantly: "Our own losses are also notable."