Fighting In Libya

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 133, 8 June 1942, Page 5

Fighting In Libya

THREE BATTLES AT ONCE

LONDON, June 7. The fiercest fighting yet seen in North Africa is taking place in the Western Desert. Three battles are going on at once. v •

The first action is taking place around the Knightsbridge crossroads, the second just inside the "Devil's Cauldron," east of. the gap in the British minefields, and the third at Bir Hacheim. At Knightsbridge the main Axis forces have been drawn further westward. Yesterday they made a desperate attempt to smash the British position, but after hours of intensive fighting they were driven off westwards back from the "Devil's Cauldron." After fighting all day yesterday inside the Cauldron armoured Allied units reached Harniat, six miles south-west of Knightsbridge. This is just within the outer rim of the Cauldron, and was previously held by the 21st Panzer Division. The Free French are still making ihe Axis pay heavily for each: unsuccessful attack at Bir Hacheim.

An observer in Cairo, looking at the battle generally, says that the fighting is more bitter than any experienced yet in North Africa. There are bound to be heavy losses in tanks and guns on both sides, he says, but so far the Axis has been the heavier loser.

A British United Press correspondent also comments on the violence of the fighting, and says it is the fiercest British troops have yet encountered in the country. Thirst, heat, sand storms, and non-stop artillery fire have turned the battlefield into an inferno. He speaks of his admiration for the Bri« tish infantry, some of which are having their first taste of desert warfare.

Reuters correspondent says that Knightsbridge, held by a Guards Brigade and artillery, is more like a foftified port from which tank columns go

out against the enemy like battl* fleets.

The Royal Navy is doing a magnificent job. An Alexandria dispatch says that British- ships are giving help to General Ritchie's forces by keeping up their shuttle service .to Tobruk. They are working in the closest cooperation with the Army and the Air Force, and are keeping-up a rigid control of the North African coast, carrying out lightning raids on enemy convoys taking supplies to Benghazi. The R.A.F. is still giving powerful help to the ground forces in Libya, and yesterday fighters and bombers ranged over the battlefield in force. Three Messerschmitts were shot down, and many enemy vehicles were de» stroyed or damaged. Not a single R.A.F. plane was lost.

On Friday night bombers battered Martuba and Derna. On the same night they crossed the Mediterranean and blasted the harbour at Naples.