ENEMY IN LIBYA

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 118, 21 May 1941, Page 7

ENEMY IN LIBYA

NEW ATTACK EXPECTED

EFFORT TO REGAIN

LOST GROUND

FLANK IN DANGER

(Rec. 9 a.m.) LONDON, May 20,

A correspondent with the British forces at Halfaya Pass, near the border of Egypt and Cyrenaica, says: "There are indications that the Germans are preparing for an attempt to regain the ground they lost. The sudden British thrust on May 15 and 16 is believed to have caused a serious dislocation of their preparations to attack the

Egyptian frontier,

"The Germans' present position is almost the same as it was a month ago. It is dangerous because it leaves open their right flank to harassing action by fast-moving British forces. The Germans can therefore be expected to make a vigorous effort to push our forces to their previous line, some 35 miles back.

"We gained in two days* fighting 300 square miles of territory. There are now no enemy troops on Egyptian soil apart from roving patrols.

"How the enemy was caught at a disadvantage is shown by the capture of 500 prisoners, besides the casualties inflicted on the enemy. Tanks and other vehicles which the Germans had been reserving for an intended big push were forced into action in order to save the triangle of 150 square miles formed by Solium, Fort Capuzzo, and Bardia from threatened encirclement by our mobile left flank. A tank officer with nine tanks in arrowhead formation engaged 40 enemy tanks and fought a toe-to-toe engagement, not only preventing the Germans from getting among the British columns of motor-borne infantry, but actually putting them to flight with much damage."—U.P.A.