FIGHT TO DEATH

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20625, 28 November 1941, Page 5

FIGHT TO DEATH

ARMOURED UNITS' LITTERED DESERT DEBRIS OF MACHINES (Reed. Nov. 28. 10 a.m.) LONDON, Nov. 27. A correspondent of the Daily Express with the Bth Army in a message of Tuesday night stated: “It has been a tremendous 24 hours in which British and German armoured units fought each other to the death. For many miles around the southeast approaches to Tobruk the desert is littered with broken and burning vehicles, overturned trucks, smashed guns and uoended and smouldering aircraft, while all over the battlefield wounded and lost men are sorting themselves out trying to find their units. There is no front line. British and German tanks have met and wiped out each other. That is all. Both sides have taken thousands of prisoners and suffered thousands of casualties. It remains now for the remnants of the opposing armoured units to reform and wait for reinforcements to reopen this bloodiest and swiftest battle the desert has ever seen.

“I have been travelling over the battlefield, but it is impossible to give news of the fate of different units. Scattered parties are everywhere. While the British air fleets roar endlessly past, bombing and fighting off enemy aircraft, there is terrific activity behind our lines. British officers vjbo have talked with German prisoners state that they all seemed t : red of fighting. One German pilot who made a crash landing but was unharmed exclaimed to his captors:— "Thank God! I’ve had enough.” A correspondent in a delayed despatch from Libya dated Saturday says the Germans and Italians surrounding Tobruk then already were faced with the problem of fighting on two sides.