LANDING IN REAR

Evening Star, Issue 24226, 20 June 1942, Page 7

LANDING IN REAR

POSSIBLE GERMAN MOVE PARACHUTISTS FROM GREECE AND CRETE ■. / LONDON, June 19. The military correspondent of the * Daily Mail ’ says: “The Germans may re-employ the classical pincer in a typically bold stroke and land men from Crete in General Ritchie’s rear. Reports that German troops are concentrating in Italy are linked up with reports that many German parachutists are at present in Greece and Crete, The Germans are reported to be concentrating gliders in Greece. Some reports say that there are 250 gliders, each with a capacity of 50 men. The Germans are practising glider flights between Greece and Crete.” The aeronautical correspondent of the * Daily Mail ’ says: “ The Germans doggedly advanced in spite of heavy air attacks until they captured our advanced, airfields, British' are/ now likely" to experience difficulty 'in , maintaining; from more distant airfields, a substantial ‘ umbrella ’ over the troops- If so, Rommel has achieved air superiority by the more costly but more direct method of overrunning aerodromes and reducing our air strength at its source.” The Cairo correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain says: “The equipment on both sides was about evenly matched at the outset, but. while British leadership has tried hard and applied many lessons frorn the last campaign, it still has not attained quite the same skill of organisation as the Germans.” The correspondent adds: “'The situation in the Western Desert is not too good, but the Nile Valley and the Middle East do not appear to be in imminent danger. Most likely the German aim will be to take Tobruk, which is the best harbour between Benghazi and Alexandria, and build it up as a base for an autumn offensive against the Middle East.” Not all the correspondents agree tbit the . Italians and the Germans will necessarily wait for the autumn to make a bold bid for the Middle East’s food and oil, opening the way to rubber and tin from the Ear East, as well as cutting the Persian Gulf supply route to Russia and threatening to place India’s wealth, labour, and power in the Italian. German, and Japanese nutcracker. AIR SUPPORT . WIDESPREAD R.A.F. OPERATIONS (British Official .Wireless.) i :;Gc. 11 a.m.) RUGBY, June 19. Widespread operations by British air-, ■•raft, conducted without loss to them- • elves, are deesribed in an R.A.F. Middle blast communique, which states: “ Tighter aircraft were active over C Vrenaica throughout yesterday, operating in close support with the land J'roces. Two Messerschmitts were shot down. Our bombers again attacked the Gazala landing ground, while at Tmimi aerodrome explosions and fires were observed among enemy-aircraft. On Wednesday night our bombers also attacked the aerodromes at Heraklion and Tymbaki, in Crete. . There has been slight enemy air activity over Malta in the last 24 hours. One Junkers 88 was shot clown by a fighter. None of our aircraft is missing.” AMERICANS’ DESERT TRAINING " TOBRUK OUR OUTPOST, AND OUR BATTLE " NEW YORK. June 19. The ‘ New York Times,’ in a leading article on the Libyan battle, points out that, while Tobruk is a ra;n facing a siege, some decisive change has taken place in the desert war. In a recent statement the Secretary for War, Mill. L. Stimson, said that American troops were undergoing intensive training in desert fighting. V America realises that Tobruk means much more than a spot in the African desert; therefore American boys are being hardened for the desert war because Tobruk is now our outpost and our battle ”