TENSE QUIET ON FRONT

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20601, 31 October 1941, Page 5

TENSE QUIET ON FRONT

THE WESTERN DESERT IMPRESSIONS AT TOBRUK (Reed. Oct. 31, 9 a.m.) LONDON, Oct. 30. A special correspondent of the Daily Express who has returned to Cairo after a 1000-mile tour, remarks that there is a strange, tense quiet along the desert front. It is the same quiet as in France at the beginning of the war.

The Germans have been trying to build a line around Tobruk to keep the British in and another on the Egyptian border to keep the British out. They have strewn land mines by the thousands and mounted antitank guns all over the rocky face of the Solium escarpment, but have not succeeded in checking the British patrols. Czechs are participating in the fighting at Tobruk. They include survivors of the Polish campaign who were taken prisoner by the Russians. After their release they found their way to Syria where they joined the French. On the capitulation of France they joined the British. A British Headquarters communique issued in Cairo to-day states: “At Tobruk activity generally was less than usual, except for a considerable increase in enemy shelling in the western sector. Enemy artillery also fired some rounds into the harbour area, but caused neither damage nor casualties. One enemy aircraft dropped two bombs, but no damage was caused. In the frontier area there was some enemy artilleryactivity. A few enemy motor vehicles were seen and were dispersed by our shellfire.” i