ABOUT TO BEGIN

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 139, 9 December 1942, Page 5

ABOUT TO BEGIN

EL AGHEILA BATTLE

BTH ARMY ON THEIR

TOES

LONDON, December 8. The men of the Eighth Army in Libya are getting ready for mass assault on Rommel's line at El Agheila. General Montgomery has forecast that the forthcoming battle will be one of the most decisive in history. He told Press correspondents that the battle was about to begin, and added bluntly that the fighting would be hard and that the Germans would put up a tough fight. Our problem was to drive the enemy out J3i Africa. There was no alternative. He paid a tribute to his men now waiting for the signal to attack; their morale was fine, and they were most anxious to get to.grips with the enemy.

-Today's Cairo communique had nothing to report about land operations in Libya apart from another day of patrol activity. The Axis forces are known to have strongly entrenched themselves over an area 25 miles square, bounded dh the north by the oastlihe from El Agheila to Mersa Brega. All along this front the Germans have set up extensive, strongpoints protected by the usual screen of artillery, anti-tank guns, and machine-gun posts.

In the air, our planes have again been very busy over the whole battle area. A correspondent says that our fighter-bombers spent yesterday strafing dug-in positions in valleys and gullies where the enemy has positioned his guns. These attacks are described officially as "successful." Yesterday our fighterrbombers made more attacks on a landing ground 40 miles behind the El Agheila position.