DESERT EPIC

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 75, 25 September 1942, Page 5

DESERT EPIC

LONG-RANGE RAIDS

AUDACITY & COURAGE

LONDON, September 23

A message from Cairo says it is revealed that the attacks by mobile columns on Benghazi and nearby Barce on September 13 formed part of the Tobruk landing operations, and were designed to disrupt the enemy's administrative organisation. The force apparently carried anti-aircraft guns, with which they destroyed attacking planes.

Official quarters steadfastly refuse to disclose details of the raids, but correspondents agree that the exploits are among the bravest and most dashing that have been undertaken in the desert theatre for some time. The material results from the raids were not insignificant, but it is pointed out that probably the most important result of these small operations is the feeling of insecurity which they produce among the entire length of the Axis lines of communication.

The military correspondent of the "Daily Telegraph" states that the raids will inevitably result in the strengthening of the Axis garrisons and the diversion to rear areas of an increased proportion of weapons and stores which otherwise would be available for the forward troops.

HAIR-RAISING STORIES

The Cairo correspondent of the "Daily Telegraph" says that speciallytrained groups employed stick bombs in the destruction of places round Barce and Benghazi. Gialo was occupied after sharp day and night fighting. ' Allied artillery had previously blown up munition supply dumps. Large supplies had accumulated at the oasis, which the enemy had clearly regarded as being outside the range of British raiding parties.

"Behind the prosaic words of the Cairo communique announcing the long-range raids lies a story of audacity and courage that have been seldom equalled in the desert warfare," says the Cairo correspondent of the Exchange Telegraph Company. "The whole story cannot be told, because it would tell the enemy too much. The raiders on their return to their bases related details which make the hair stand on end.

"It was a masterpiece of planning and organisation to enable a mobile, hard-hitting force, equipped with artillery, to trek 500 miles across the desert wastes, deliver its blows, and then return a similar distance to the bases."

The Western Desert correspondent of "The Times" says: "These magnificent exploits are part and parcel of a systematic plan for damaging and disturbing the enemy's supply arrangements, thus preventing, or at least delaying, the completion of Rommel's immediate task of building up his battered army."