EVER CHANGING

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20624, 27 November 1941, Page 5

EVER CHANGING

FRONTS OF BATTLE SOUTH AFRICAN STAND GERMAN TANK FURY (Reed. Nov. 27, 9 a.m.) LONDON, Nov. 25. The Daily Express correspondent with the Bth Army in a despatch delayed since Sunday says the coastal road from El Adem to Bardia is jammed with a great mass of enemy troops, guns and transports, ; slowly moving westward. German tanks and' artillery have been trying for 36 hours to blitz a way through the British lines. General Rommel left an Italian division and other Axis units in the Bardia and Halfaya Pass areas to their fates while he gambled everything on breaking through westwards. For 12 hours a single English armoured unit held Rommel back. It was the same unit that took Capuzzo 18 months ago. On the Sidi Rezegh airfield the British unit was outnumbered by almost three to one. Although the front ranks were decimated they held out until relieved. Every man, including a brigadier, staff officers and cipher clerks, took to the guns at critical moments. Next morning the unit’s regimental colours were still flying and the unit was preparing to go into the barrage again.

Tobruk Counter

On Saturday German heavy guns, which for seven months had been pounding Tobruk, turned on an English unit in preparation for a counter-attack. The enemy possessed enough guns to keep the air shuddering with their thunder. Men could be seen scampering from the rolling black smoke of heavy shells through which the vehicles dashed back and forth. British mobile artillery ceaselessly crept through the barrage to new positions among the escarpment rocks overlooking El Adem. The actual fighting front is ever changing and often obscured by drifting smoke, dust and flame. Ground bombing followed intensive divebombing by Stukas. As darkness fell the Germans, by sheer weight of metal, closed in on the Sidi Rezegh airfield. As we moved back the Germans advanced, stabbing anywhere through the night, but the machineguns did not rest. At dawn the shelling was redoubled and the horizon again disappeared in smoke.

The correspondent in a later despatch says that late on Monday afternoon Italians from the west and Germans from the north-east cut through the base of the tongue of British territory running up to Tobruk from the south. Over 100 German tanks fell on a‘South African formation. ■ The Germans were seen right inside the South African camp. First Night Action

A British armoured formation was rushed to the scene and flung tanks into the first night action of the campaign. Before dawn 25 German and seven Italian tanks had been destroyed, expluding tanks demolished by the South Africans.

Only a small proportion of Rommel’s 280 tanks originally in this area were now mobile. Between Tobruk and Bardia the Germans brought only half a dozen tanks against us. They were forced back westwards.

Incredible mix-ups are occurring all over the battlefield. British and German units frequently unknowingly camp within a mile of each other. A German radio van once lumbered through British Headquarters and was captured intact.

The military spokesman in Cairo stated that the engagement in which the South Africans were involved is a type the enemy might launch if he desired to obtain elbow room in preparation for a retreat westwards. The action occupied a matter of minutes. Enemy tanks attempted to dash through and do all possible damage before the anti-tank guns could be re-aligned for a second shot. The South Africans did extremely well to hold the Germans until the British tanks were able to come up to counterattack.