VICTORIES IN AFRICA

Greymouth Evening Star, 29 March 1941, Page 7

VICTORIES IN AFRICA

HOW KEREN WAS TAKEN

ANGLO-INDIANS SCALE HEIGHTS

[BY CABLE—PRESS ASSN. COPYRIGHT.]

LONDON, March 28.

Two smashing blows were struck yesterday at Italy’s East' African empire. In Eritrea, the key fortress of Keren has fallen and further south, Harrar, the second city of Abyssinia, has been captured. British armoured units entered Keren at 7 a.m. yesterday, after an artillery barrage lasting an hour. The Italians are now streaming in the direction of Asmara, and are being heavily shelled and bombed. They are tinder fire from British infantry holding encircling heights. , The Italian casualties at Keren run into thousands. - The Italians launched 12 counter-attacks during the' 48 hours before the capture. They suffered heavily when they left the protection of prepared positions and scrambled over crags to storm British positions' held largely by Indians. The Indians' beat ■ back each attack. Many Italians fell into ravines and down precipices. Indian and British troops forming the spearhead of the assault prepared the way by scaling perpendicular cliffs hundreds of feet high and then, after a stiff fight, reached points overlooking the Italians and hurled hand-grenades at gun positions. They had to subdue three formidable peaks before they could command the escarpment. The final shelling completely shattered the Italian resistance. Armoured units after entering the town split up. One formation pushed on along the road to Asmara and the other raced along the Mogarreh "Valley, north-west of Keien, where it is now rounding up Italians opposing the British left flank. It is estimated that at least 1500 Italians were taken prisoner. After the fall of Agordat and Barentu the Italians took up strong defensive positions in the steep mountains round Keren, where the road runs through a narrow gorge with precipitous sides. Slowly but surely British and Indian troops, assisted by the Royal Air Force, drove the Italians back, while another column from the north, including Free French troops, closed in on the town from that direction, so that, Keren was invested on three sides. Four days ago the main battle began and each hour increased in intensity. During the last 48 hours of the battle, the Italian casualties were heavier than ever before. The British forces captured an entire brigade headquarters staff. Keren is 75 miles from Asmara with which it is connected by a motor road and railway. It was defended by between 60,000 and 70,000 crapx Italian metropolitan and colonial troops, and at first was considered bv the infantry to be almost impregnable The defenders had some of the best of the Italian artillery.

ATTACK ON HARRAR, RUGBY, March 28. A Nairobi communique issued before the fall of Harrar, in south-east Abyssinia, states: “Our Abyssinian irregular companies have occupied several posts to the east and west of Yavella. In one post 100 of the enemy surrendered without resistance. The morale of the enemy encountered over the whole of this sector is reported to be very low. “A position on Marda Pass has been forced by our West African troops. The position, in addition to its natural strength, has been strong- ] ly reinforced by the Italians with deep defences of wire and tank traps and in some cases tunnels were dug through the hill. Prisoners were Harrar has special associations with the Emperor Haile Selassie, one of whose sons is the Duke of Hariar. It is the second city of Abyssinia, and lies on a hillside 5000 feet above sea level. . While in the North, a Cairo communique described the continued advance after the fall of Keren, towards Asmara, to-day’s communique issued at Nairobi shows the Italians are being pursued from Harrar. It states. “After enemy guns east of Harrar had been silenced, the white flag was displayed at 3.30 p.m., on March 25, and our troops occupied the town. The pursuit of the enemy continues in the direction of Diredaiwa.

R.A.F.’S EFFECTIVE AID. LONDON, March 28. The part played by the Royal Air Force and the South African Air Force in the capture of Keren is described in an Air Ministry bulletin, which states that during the week enemy positions in the hills round Keren have been heavily and persistently bombed. Nearly 40 tons of bombs were dropped in this area in the last four days, and more than 120 tons in the last 12 days. Aircraft were over the target most of these days from morning until night. South African Air Force fighters were active in the area and on Wednesday, not many hours before the town fell, two of them engaged and destroyed two CR 42’s. , . The Air Force’s contribution to “the successful operations is remarkable, in view of the difficult flying conditions. The town itself is surrounded by tiers of mountains between 6000 and 7000 feet high, and it was among these that the aircraft had to seek out and destroy enemy positions.

RUGBY. March 28.

An R.A.F. Middle East communique says During the final stages culminating in the capture of Keien, the RA.F. gave vigorous support to the Army by bombing enemy positions and batteries in the round the town. The Addis Ababa to Djibouti railway was again heavily attacked yesterday by our bombers. Fifty miles to the east of Addis Ababa, a troop train was machine-gunned and damagThe S.A.A.F. successfully bombed an enemy camp and administrative buildings and entrenchments north of Lake Rudolph. A.F. bombers made a successful raid on the aerodrome at Calato, in the Island of Rhodes yesterday, when buildings on the aerodrome and. a petrol dump were set on fire, causing a smoke cloud that could be seen a hundred miles away. At least one aircraft was destroyed on the ground. •AU of ours returned safely from the above operations.

WILL ENEMY CONTINUE FIGHT?

RUGBY, March .28

While not minimising the importance ot the reduction of Keren, mili- | tary observers here still consider it unwise to assume that this means the immediate tollapse of resistance in Eritrea, A large proportion of the Italian garrison was able to get out of Keren, along the road and railway' in the direction of Asmara, and j An interesting---and perhaps unpre- . cedented—outcome of the fortnight’s stern battle, is that certain British! (possibly including Highland) and Indian regiments will have two places added to their battle .honours—Sidi Barrani and Keren—captured within three months, though lying 1500 miles apart. In Abyssinia, the sudden capture of Harrar occasioned some surprise in military circles, and encourage a cheerful outlook, since Harrar is but 5 miles from- the railway at Diredawa, a railway which has been the object of repeated heavy attacks by Imperial Air Forces during recent days. Regarding the landing of a British plane at Roccolittorio, in Italian Somaliland, to take off Italian civilians, it is considered this underlines the urgency from the Italian point of view of the whole problem of Italian nationals in Abyssinia. Are the Italians there in danger or not? I Will the Duke of Aosta—fine soldier, header and character—consider he is justified in exposing his nationals to the undoubted risk they may' run if the Italian native troops desert, and Italian troops become demoralised? He must be aware that the Abyssinians have not forgotten the cruelties of 1936 and afterwards under Graziani. The Duke is' a man who must decide this -extremely difficult question, which in essence resolves itself into “shall we. fight on or not?” though probably not in good shape, there is no military reason why they cannot hold fighting positions all the way to Asmara,* 4