ENEMY'S AIM

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 136, 11 June 1942, Page 5

ENEMY'S AIM

SHORTER LINES OF COMMUNICATION

DECISION NEAR

(lice. 11.10 a.m.) RUGBY, June 10. According to a news agency correspondent with the Eighth Army, the enemy appear to be concentrating on taking Bir Hacheim in the hope of reducing their lines of communication by 40 to 50 miles. Finding if impossible to overwhelm the French garrison with mobile artillery and the close support of infantry and guns, they, opened a bombardment with long medium-range field guns, supported by squadrons of divebombers. From morning till night yesterday and throughout last night the German artillery maintained their fire, but all the attacks were repulsed, with the assistance of British armoured forces that had been dispatched to the area. While the enemy main forces moved to subdue the French resistance, the only fighting around Knightsbridge and the Cauldron area was constant harassing of Axis convoys close to the original gap in the minefield. The thunder of long-range artillery rolled across the desert from Bir Hacheim, and after a day of the fiercest fighting, in which the timely arrival of British forces turned the scale, the Tricolour was still flying at sunset over the desert citadel. BATTLEGROUND MOVING SOUTH. More and more, the main battleground is moving to the extreme south, whefe the enemy has been driven off more than a dozen times, and where yesterday General Koenig ordered a counter-attack towards the north which threw, the enemy into the incoming British reinforcements. In the meantime, the British column got well onto the enemy's supply lines in that area. A correspondent estimates that yesterday's battle was probably one of the greatest yet fought in the desert, and that so long as supplies are coming in to the fighting forces the position of J the British armies is good. It was felt last night, after the tremendous onslaught by. the German artillery, that the coming hours would be decisive. According to information available, the enemy is concentrating on Bir Hacheim in readiness to launch yet another assault. Regular communications are practically nil. The R.A.F. on Tuesday morning was asked to attend to the dive-bombers which were operating in considerable numbers.

It is evident that the tenacious resistance of the French is a considerable embarrassment to the enemy.—B.O.W.