CRITICAL HOURS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 134, 9 June 1942, Page 5

CRITICAL HOURS

THIRD GERMAN ASSAULT

NEARLY EVERYTHING STAKED

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.)

(Rec. 12.15 p.m.) LONDON, June 8.

In his message to the troops of the Eighth Army, General Ritchie said: "All our efforts are. needed now—dogged, determined, and aggressive—to turn the tide to victory."

A British United Press correspondent on the Tamar front, quoting General Ritchie's message, says: "The next twelve hours are likely to be the most critical of the present battle, as the Germans seem to be staking all, or nearly all* on this third major assault against Knightsbridge. Seventy-five tanks form the spearhead of the assault. Rommel cannot afford to take chances in attempting to by-pass Knightsbridge, because in addition to the rings of batteries around that position, the British defences include tanks and other armoured forces which are operating outside the Knightsbridge perimeter, and ready to undertake sorties."

Reuters correspondent says that the Axis armoured divisions lost about half their initial front-line strength as a result of a ferocious weekend battle in an area of 40 square miles.

Due to improved repair facilities, the British now have as many vehicles as the Axis.

It is generally considered that the present stage of the battle cannot last much longer.