ITALIANS PUSHED BACK

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 27, 1 February 1941, Page 12

ITALIANS PUSHED BACK

RAID BY NIGERIANS

MAKESHIFT NAVY x

LONDON, January 31.

On every section of the widespread African front the Italians are being hard pressed by our troops and are steadily withdrawing. The latest news of the British acU vance conies in an official announcement in Nairobi, saying that our patrols have /reached positions 40 miles over the Italian Somaliland border. Minor encounters have taken place in that region, and we caused 8 casualties and took prisoners.

It has been stated in authoritative quarters in London that General Waveil's troops in Libya are continuing their advance along the coastal route from Derna towards Apollonia, which lies some 40 miles further west.

A successful raid on Italian Somaliland by Nigerian troops is reported today. .The Nigerian forces were assisted by units of the picturesque Kenya navy, which is formed largely of schooners, dhows, motor boats, and whale-boats, manned by settlers and men from the interior of Kenya, many of whom, although they had not seea the §ea before. the outbreak of war, are now efficient sailors. ;'

The Nigerians landed in a mangrove swamp and marched all] through the t night across the frontier.1 They found / the countryside deserted, and. set fire , to an enemy village, leaving only: a mosque untouched. The village was an important post for the Italians, who twice carried out raids^ from it "on coastal villages in Kenya. "STRATEGIC PLAN." The Rome radio tonight announced . that the evacuation of Derna was part of a strategic plan by the Italian, High Command. The result of the move will be seen clearly in the near future, it said. ..

Another broadcast from .Rome praised Marshal Graziani for deliberately sacrificing two divisions at Bardia and one at Tobruk with the idea that the sacrifice would mean that the later resistance would have more chance of success. The Rome radio quotes brie Italian newspaper as saying that the withdrawal will not change events; a^s to the future of the war even if,, it imposes a temporary abandonment of . Italy's colonies. . ..