8th Army Drives Rommel Into Tripolitania

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 144, 15 December 1942, Page 5

Bth Army Drives Rommel Into Tripolitania

(By TelegTaph—Press Aasociation-^-Copyright.)

(Rec. 9.30 a.m.) LONDON, December 14. Rommers Afrika Korps is retreating: headlong into Tripolitania, relentlessly pursued by the "Eighth Army.

Reuters Cairo correspondent says that the German withdrawal began when Allied forces operating south of the outflanked defences made the position of El Agheila untenable. The R.A.F, employed tactics similar to those used against the enemy at El. Alamein. Our air striking force nine days ago was given practically the single task of blasting the enemy's forward figr hter base at Marble Arch. This was done so successfully in a series of raids that the enemy was forced to withdraw the greater part of his fighter strength from El Agheila to Nofilia, 90 miles to the west. The practical result of this was that the Axis ground forces behind the El Agheila line were without air support. Messerschmitts were unable to reach the area and remain there for any length of time.

The Allied air activity reached its peak yesterday, when British, Australian, and American airmen maintained a strafing and bombing shuttle service from dawn to dusk against the enemy without losing a plane. Fighter'bombers carried but over 300 sorties, which is a record for these planes in any theatre of war.

Rommel's "withdrawal from El Agheila to positions further west is officially announced in Berlin. .

Commenting on the announcement, Berlin radio said this was not surprising, because signs of such intention on Rommel's part had been increasing in the last few days. The commentator added: "Military experts think Rommel's withdrawal, which is favoured by bad weather, will improve the general position of the Axis forces if the German commander succeeds in safely reaching the fortified Misurata line, which will add a further 375 miles to General Montgomery's supply lines." REARGUARD ACTIONS LIKELY. Reuters correspondent adds that Rommel will possibly take his main forces as fast as he can to Misurata and try to hold as long as possible the bridgehead between Tunis and Tripoli. He is likely in that case to endeavour to delay the victorious Eighth Army by leaving behind fairly strong rearguards. Battles of the wadis: (driedup watercourses) may develop within the next few days. The enemy may utilise the cliff-walled, deep wadis between El Agheila* and Misurata to check our advance. The whole country between the Libyan border and Misurata is unsuited for rapid armoured advance, and is even more inhospitable than the El Agheila terrain.

If Rommel decides to try rearguard actions he is likely to have a certain amount of success in nuisance battles.

The correspondent of the Exchange Telegraph Agency with the Eighth Army says that prisoners , have already begun to flow in. Rearguard actions are likely to continue for some time, because enemy suicide parties, with some artillery but few armoured cars, carry out delaying actions. It seems that the enemy decided to withdraw from El Agheila because throughout our recent large-scale reconnaissance was an all-out offensive, says the British United Press correspondent with General Montgomery's forces. Rommel's halt at El Agheila proved' only" a* grandiose delaying action, and the retreating 'army is now not giving battle. Three or four days before the offensive opened the Eighth Army had been moving up, continually encountering only slight opposition. By yesterday the Eighth Army was thrusting along the coast and also in the centre and from the south. Rommel was then in an excellent position, but undoubtedly he feared he would be outflanked from the south, so he promptly gave up the Mersa Brega lines.

According to Morocco radio, Rommel destroyed his fortified position at El Agheila and left large minefields before retreating into Tripolitania. Reuters military correspondent says it would not be surprising to find that Rommel's heavy tanks have already been transferred to Tunisia, where the strength of the Axis striking force has been considerably greater than might have been expected from airborne troops only. NAZI FORCES TOO WEAK FOR DEFENCE. Driven from Egypt, Marmarica, and Cyrenaica, Rommel's battered troops are now scurrying through , Tripolitania, says the Cairo correspondent of "The Times." It is unlikely that he will do more than fight further delaying actions anywhere east of Tripoli. Rommel's tremendous defeat at El Alamein, coupled with the impossibility of reinforcing his depleted forces because of relentless R.A.F. and naval attacks against his convoys, left himj too weak even to defend the strongest natural defensive pcisition throughout Libya. The country which our advanced elements are now entering, contains rocky gullies running to the coast-which might provide strong positions for resolute troops, but there are no indications of any prepared defences, and certainly none as strong as those around El Agheila. -Both "The Times" and the "Daily Mail agre editorially that Rommel has succeeded^ in evading a large-scale action. "The Times" credits Rommel )XA -,a W*l? v strategical success. The Daily Mail" says he has again been out-generalled and out-manoeuvred.