MAY BE A PAUSE

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 144, 14 December 1940, Page 11

MAY BE A PAUSE

NEWS OF OPERATIONS

MAJOR-GENERAL O'CONNOR IN CHARGE IN DESERT

HAS ITALIAN MEDAL

(British Official Wlrelegs.)

(Received December 14, 11.20 a.m.)

RUGBY, December 13,

Military circles in London, commenting on the operations in the Western Desert, where on a battlefield of 420 square miles the British forces are en-? gaged in "mopping up" pockets of resistance amongst the scattered and disorganised, Italian troops, point out that a pause in the operations or even no further news should cause neither surprise nor disappointment when the activities of the last five days are coflsidered in proper perspective as wejl as the task immediately before the British troops.

The great distances in. waterless country make the task of dealing with as many as 20,000 prisoners one of difficulty, while five days in desert fighting and travelling long distances

impose a severe strain on men and machines, necessitating rest, repair, and overhaul. Military circles lay special emphasis on the smoothness without which they I say the operations could not have been accomplished with such outstanding success, and which was the result of careful and lengthy preparations and training. It was revealed today that the officer in command in the Western Desert and therefore in particular control of the recent operations is Major-General R. N. O'Connor. This British general holds the Italian Silver Medal for valour. Major-General Richard Nugent O'Connor was born in 1889 and served in the European War, gaining mention in dispatches, the D.S.O. and M.C., as well as the Italian Silver Medal for Valour. In 1932-33 he was General Staff Officer. Second Grade, at the War Office, and in 1935 he took a course at the Imperial Defence College. In 1936-38 he commanded the Peshawar Brigade in India and in 1938 was given command of the 7th Division. He was later appointed Military Governor of Jerusalem when the High Commissioner of Palestine, Sir Harold MacMichael, authorised the appointment of military governors to take over from the district commissioners. He conducted the operations against Arab rebels in the Old City.