GALLIPOLI AGAIN

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 27, 1 February 1941, Page 11

GALLIPOLI AGAIN

STORY OF ASSAULT

GRIM AUSTRALIANS

ADVANCE UNDER FIRE

STEEP HILLS CLIMBED

LONDON, January SO. Prisoners who were taken at Derna insisted, that General Bergonzoli, who commanded the Derna garrison, is now organising a new line west of Derna for a final attempt to halt the British drive. - - The Italians, in a strong attempt to delay the inevitable at Derna, rained thousands of shells from the three forts\ and from other batteries against the Australian infantry. The British guns replied and in the weekend silenced the most troublesome battery. In the face '* of the severe fire the Australians had advanced three miles to within, four miles of the town. The defences did not equal those of Tobruk, but three forts surmounting ridges dominated the approaches. The British worked throughout Sunday, night and brought up guns. From their new positions the Australians advanced undet the protection .of these guns and, with! armoured- units, reached on the following morning Derna airport, which the Italians were forced to abandon, leaving a few dead. HONOURS SHARED. An. Australian infantry platoon and a North Country machine-gun platoon share the honours of capturing the airport and of carrying the last defences of Derna. They wormed their way on their stomachs across the airfield/ and for four hours derelict planes were the only cover from the Italian machine-guns, which spat unceasingly. Some were wounded and it was more difficult to get them back than to go forward, but just at sundown the Australians got to within striking distance and rose and charged with fixed bayonets. The Italians fled. The Australians occupied hangars and then after dawn discovered the Italians only 350 yards away with three tanks. Machine-guns on both sides furiously exchanged fire. Finally, the arrival of Britishmanned anti-tank guns turned the scale. They set on fire one Italian tank and crippled the others, which fled. The Italian guns from the forts Immediately opened up and plastered the aerodrome with accurate fire, pumping in 150 shells in 90 minutes. Two Italian fighters also swooped down and machine-gunned platoons, j but the Australians and. North Countrymen filed out and accompanied their tanks unfalteringly through.the \ hail of fire. The machine-guns in the tanks rattled and, with the aid of British bombers which suddenly appeared, they silenced the nearest battery. To gain Derna they had to go down a bare valley and climb up the other side with an Italian, battery firing straight along it. Nine bombers and 20 fighters attacked the Australians and supporting artillerymen, but their marksmanship was poor. British fighters swooped in and shot down two and chased off others, while anti-aircraft guns brought down a third. • ENEIHST TANKS REPULSED. The British artillery moved on and continued its pounding while the Australians mopped up "position after position. The Italian tanks attempted a counter-attack from the west against the attackers' flank, but Australian units went out to meet the.n, and after a brisk encounter the Italians j made off, leaving 60 dead. Other British and Australian forces then moved up and made a supporting drive to Derna from the west. The original heroes from the aerodrome struggled on, dusty, dry, and bedraggled, but grimly determined as they set out through barbed-wire and fields of land mines. Another Australian patrol went to the beach and approached Derna from the east. These ran into a hail of fire from a fort, but hung on though without water or food for .24 hours. Climbing all night over country that is identical with the coast on which their fathers fought at Gallipoli, they reached an almost perpendicular hillside 400 yards from the fort. FORT ENTERED., After water-carriers had brought up rations and water the troops rushed the hill and entered the fort. They left .some dead outside. They herded in a courtyard 68 officers and men who had surrendered to a squad of Australians whom they outnumbered three to one. The rest of the platoons carried on cleaning up machine-gun nests and isolated snipers. Mopping up in the gulches and split ridges prolonged the operations, which were further ham- - pered by blinding sandstorms. These delays, combined with' the broken country and the scattered nature of Derna's defences, are believed to have allowed most of the defenders to withdraw to the west.