HISTORIC SUCCESS

Evening Star, Issue 23811, 15 February 1941, Page 11

HISTORIC SUCCESS

THE GYRENAIGAN CAMPAIGN A BRILLIANT MILITARY OPERATION MORAL ASCENDANCY OF BRITISH TROCPS (British Official Wireless.) Press Association—By Telegraph—CopyrigbJ RUGBY, February 14. (Received February 15, at 10.28 a.m.)] The conclusion' of the Cyrenaican. campaign enables a survey to be given of this achievement, which, by general consent, will go down in history as one of the most brilliant military operations ever accomplished, and as an outstanding example of co-opera-tion between land, sea, and air forces, consisting of highly-trained men using magnificent equipment manufactured by equally highly-trained workmen. Word of the last phases of the campaign began reaching London on February 4, and by February 8 British Imperial patrols had reached the frontier between Cyrenaica and Tripolitania.

This truly historic success is all the more significant when its causes are investigated. It was due to three factors the absolute moral ascendancy ot the oritisn and Imperial troops, the excellence and thoroughness of their training, and the standard and quality of their equipment.

From the outset of the war againsU Italy the armoured division seized tha initiative and lost no opportunity of attacking and carrying the war into the enemy’s country. As long ago aa the early days of last summer British, armoured units penetrated into thousands of square miles of hostile territory, surprising the enemy’s outposts, interrupting his columns, harassing his communications and generally making him feel insecure and hesitant in spite of his superiority of 10 to 1 in numbers, and 20 or 30 to one in guns. If the British armoured units appeared even in small numbers to threaten the Italian line of retreat their moral ascendancy became such that the Italians’ first impulse was to exaggerate the strength of the forces engaged and fall back on the defensive instead of using their superior forces to break through. This British moral ascendancy was the keynote of the subsequent operations. The value of the training may be gauged by the extent to which the British Imperial troops were ready to withstand fatigue and incredible hardships and from the work of the longdistance patrois in wheeled vehicles.' These have been under the command of a handful of Englishmen who made it their particular hobby to explore the Libyan Desert. PICKED PATROLS. These patrols were composed of picked officers and men of the Royal Armoured Corps and the New Zealand Forces, later augmented by volunteers from other British forces and the Rhodesians. Six weeks after the start of the war they began their operations, shooting up convoys, destroying petrol dumps and stores, and generally making life a misery for isolated Italian desert garrisons. In concert with Free French Forces our patrols operated in Fezzan, where Traghan had been captured, and at the airfield at Murzuk, about 450 miles south of Tripoli. The town was destroyed. The air base at Kufra was also captured, thereby depriving the Italians of the use of this stepping stone for aircraft between Libya and East Africa and removing the potential threat to the Upper Nile. .'RAISE FOR DRIVERS. Special mention must be made of the magnificent performance of the transport drivers throughout the operations in Africa. In spite of sandstorms, bombing attacks, the shortage of water, and great hardship, the drivers from Home, the dominions, India, and Cyprus never failed their comrades in the fighting line, their deliveries having been punctual and the maiutainance of their vehicles exemplary. A great tribute has been paid by the military to the mechanical excellence of the equipment of the British armoured units, by which the engineers and workers at Home have contributed directly to the victory in the field. For nearly eight months all these vehicles have been continuously in use. Longdistance patrols have covered altogether half a million miles without a single loss from mechanical breakdown, in spite of the very rough going in unchartered regions over rocky outcrops and through seas of' sand. The armoured forces, which had already stood the strain of continuous operation over long distances under the worst possible conditions, were perfectly able to make the magnificent final sprint which took the enemy completely by surprise and showed that the veteran British products were far superior to the newlydelivered Italian tanks.

CURFEW IMPOSED

LOOTING IN BENGHAZI SHOTS FIRED AS WARNING LONDON, February 14. A curfew has been imposed on: Benghazi from 6.30 p.m. Other steps have been taken to check looting and violence, including orders to shoot looters. Shota have so far been fired only as a warning, but 20 looters ar* already in Benghazi gaol.

PETROL IN AUSTRALIA

RATION REDUCED FOR PRIVATE CARS SYDNEY, February 14. The Federal Government has decided to reduce the petrol ration for cars not used for business from 4,CKX) to 3,000 miles a year.