TRANSPORT FEAT

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 14, 17 January 1941, Page 8

TRANSPORT FEAT

CAMPAIGN IN LIBYA

NEW ZEALANDERS' PART

PRESSURE ON TOBRUK

STEADILY INCREASING

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.)

(Received January 17, 2.10 p.m.)

LONDON, January 16.

The organisation of British transport in the Libyan campaign is one of the 'greatest achievements of the last four weeks. The "Colonial Carrying C 0.," the name given by the troops for the New Zealand transport and drivers, has played a great part in carrying battalion after battalion first from near Alexandria to Bardia, ~ then from Bardia to Tobruk. The whole operation occupied a week. The British pressure on Tobruk is steadily increasing, and the position there is as follows:—The British armoured units are operating far to the west of the beleaguered port worrying the Italians, who are trying to form a defence line 100 miles behind the isolated Tobruk position. Infantry and artillery are massing to the east and south with big guns systematically pounding the defences . in preparation for the final intensive barrage. To the north, the British Navy controls the sea approaches to Tobruk, and has joined in the artillery bombardment. AREA OF "TOBARDIA." In the area between Bardia and Tobruk, which the soldiers now call "Tobardia," the roads are packed with troops and supplies going up to join in. the assault, while overhead British fighter patrols protect them against the possibility of Italian bombing attacks. Critics have stated that the more the difficulties of moving ammunition and supplies across the desert are realised the clearer it .becomes that the British Army should not have been allowed to reach Tobruk at all. One observer also says that Bardia might well have held out for months. Inside the concrete defences the whole of the defined area of Bardia is a natural fortress comprised of solid rock which is proof against any form of shelling, and huge stores of food and ammunition have been found by the British in the caverns there. All reports make it clear that the pressure against the Italians in East Africa both from the Sudan and from Kenya is being increased. It is officially announced that Assab," in Italian East Africa, was heavily raided by our bombers on Tuesday night and Assam was attacked on Monday night. The news that Italian troubles inside East Africa are increasing was given prominence in today's London newspapers, which publish reports of Haile Selassie reviewing the force already at his disposal for the eventual reconquering of Abyssinia. CAPTURE OF A GENERAL. The story is told how General Argentina was captured after the battle of Bardia. A British sergeant on, the coast saw an Italian soldier slip into a cave. He went to the entrance, and shouted out to the occupants to. come out, but they refused. The sergeant then noticed a British colonel having a swim in the sea. He called him, and the two went to the entrance of the cave. There the colonel, wearing nothing but his slippers, stood at the ready with a revolver, while the sergeant called out, "Shooting!" The Italians came out, and it was found that one was General Argentina.