THE "CAULDRON" BATTLE

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

THE "CAULDRON" BATTLE

VITAL IMPORTANCE STRESSED

LONDON, June 6.

The commander of the Imperial air forces in the battle of Libya, Air ViceMarshal Coningham, when interviewed today by the correspondent of the "Sunday Times" in the Western Desert, stressed the vital character of the "cauldron" battle, which, he said, will decide the result of this campaign. He added that the enemy must be getting pretty worried about his vaunted dive-bombers.

"The Allied pilots duriflg the first part of the present battle concentrated against tanks and infantry, and did damned well," he said. "Now that we have got the edge on the enemy, and the boys have had time for other pursuits, I have had them out stukafaunting recently around Bir Hacheim. They have done a pretty piece of business to those over-rated Nazi crates. These Nazis are truculent so-and-so's, and I do not speak to them when they are brought in. There are already enough blots on the desert landscape without my seeing any more unnecessarily. What I am interested in is killing as many as possible, and these are my orders to the pilots.

"The enemy has plenty of planes. Benghazi is crowded with ships unloading about 2000"tons daily,'but w« are not worried. '..It-will';be grand booty when we reach it. fGenefal Rommel now has three courses open, says Reuters special correspondent. The first is to stand at bay and fight it out in the "Cauldron"; the second is to attempt a desperate counter-attack to break the Allied manacles; and the third is to withdraw from the bridgehead at the mouth of the minefields gap.

Cooler and better weather has lately spread over the Libyan battle area.