DRAWING TIGHTER

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 156, 30 December 1940, Page 7

DRAWING TIGHTER

GARRISON TRAPPED

ALL EXITS BARRED

HAVOC BY THE NAVY

(By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright.) (Received December 30, 12.20 p.m.);

LONDON, December 29

The steel ring is steadily drawing tighter around Bardia, says the Cairo correspondent of the "Sunday Express." The garrison of 20,000 Italians is completely trapped and must surrender or be slaughtered. The British Army blocks the land routes out of the town, and the Fleet blocks the sea entrances. Nightly the Fleet pours in high-explosives and fire bombs, and the harbour district and the waterfront, are now in ruins.

Added to all this is the continuous bombing by the Royal Air Force.

Signor Ansaldo declared in Rome that Bardia is not a bastion, as the British claimed. Its desperate resistance, he said, is explained by reasons of morale and because the soldiers were irritated by the enemy boasting after the capture of Sidi Barrani. The Italians also regard the port as a prop during fluctuations in the fortunes of the war in Libya.

An Italian communique reports increased artillery and patrol activity on the Bardia front and claims that lightning Italian columns, manoeuvring in co-operation with the air force,-de-stroyed some British armoured cars. It says that the enemy bombed some Italian localities in Ethiopia.