ENEMY HALTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 100, 30 April 1941, Page 9

ENEMY HALTS

THE LIBYAN ADVANCE

LONG-DRAWN LINE

TRIPOLI tO SOLLUM

LONDON, April 29,

No important change has been reported in the Libyan situation during the past 24 hours. .A Cairo spokesman said tonight that the enemy had reached a point five miles east of Sollum and had halted there.

It was not possible/to say whether the halt was due to the continued harassing action of the British troops, air bombing, the supply problem, or sand storms, but in any case, the enemy troops were now spread out in a long line from Tripoli to Sollum. The head of the advance was in three columns, one following the coastal road and the others on the escarpment above. All three had halted near Sollum.

It is pointed out in London that the British force~at Tobruk is proving a serious thorn in the side of the advancing enemy troops.

Today's air communique from the Middle East reports another attack by British aircraft on enemy troop-carry-ing planes on the landing ground at Benina, near Benghazi. One enemy: troop-carrier was destroyed while embarking men, and a number of others were severely damaged and considerable casualties inflicted^ on enemy troops.

Further details of the similar attack reported yesterday show that aa R.A.F. pilot, who had completed a reconnaissance flight, when coming back over Benina, saw what looked like 100 Junkers troop-carjrying planes standing wing-tip to wing-tip. His crew urged him to attack the enemy aircraft, and he. accordingly dived. When the British machine was only 50ft above the ground, the crew opened fire. In the words of the pilot: "We flashed right along the line of aircraft, giving them all we had. One aircraft burst into flames, and smoke poured from others. The soldiers were too startled to raise their,rifles. They just closed up like pen-knives and. toppled to the ground. The British machine returned to its base without even a scratch.

The severe duststorms which have been hampering all war operations "in the Middle East did not prevent a young Rhodesian pilot from shooting down a Messerschmitt. The enemy plane crashed on the Sollum escarpment and broke into pieces.