PUSHING ON

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 31, 6 February 1941, Page 9

PUSHING ON

WAVELL'S MEN

NO STOP AT CIRENE

ENEMY WITHDRAWAL EN MASSE

LONDON, February 4. General Wavell's forward troops in Cyrenaica are pushing on beyond Cirene, which was Marshal Graziani's headquarters for the conquest of Egypt. Infantry with machine-guns* are assumed to have taken El Gubba, the last fortified town on the coastal route to Benghazi, and which straddles the 50----mile main road from Derna to Cirene. Cirene is 1800 feet above sea level and beyond Apollonia, which was presumably cut off. The Italians are apparently withdrawing en masse along the parallel road from Cirene to Barce. After fighting their way from Derna j under the Italian artillery fire, the British forces climbed the hillsides inland to the enemy's level and resumed the forward drive. The troops marched on foot, with the artillery and stores in the rear. Hardly a shot was fired between there and El Gubba. The Italians preferred to rely on landmines and booby traps, dynamiting roads and blowing up bridges. The British in Eritrea are five miles west of Keren and are gathering as they press on great batches of prisoners and also masses of guns, lorries, and ammunition which the Italians have jettisoned. The British guns are harassing the tired Italian troops with tremendous barrages. Already the Italian rearguard has been halved and has lost 70 per cent, of its material. The captors of Barentu took prisoner 1500 of them and killed 500 and captured a large