TOWARDS TOBRUK

Grey River Argus, 9 January 1941, Page 5

TOWARDS TOBRUK

65 Miles Beyond Bardia [Aus. & N.Z. Cable Assn.] LONDON, January 7. British advance units are already knocking at the door of Tobruk, 65 miles west of Bardia. Although the British lines of communication have been further extended, the problem of supply has been further lightened by the occupation of Sidi Barrani and Bardia. The Italian Air Force has been compelled to withdraw from its bases, and is now operating from ponits west of Tobruk. Some of the old Italian airfields are now occupied by the Royal Air Force, which is concentratink its main attack on Tobruk and its harbour.

A Cairo Communique states: Operations towards Tobruk are proceeding satisfactorily. Further Royal Air Force raids on Tobruk and Tripoli, from which all the British ’planes returned safely, are recorded in an R.A.F. Middle Fast communique issued on Tuesday night which says: Tripoli was again raided heavily by R.A.F. bombers on the night of January 6-7. Several tons of bombs were dropped among motor vessels in the centre of the harbour, causing a series of explosions, and clouds of smoke. A direct hit registered amidships a large motor vessel, followed by explosions. Several smaller cargo ships were probably hit. Fires were caused among Customs buildings and wharves. The power station was bombarded and much damage caused. A further raid was made on Tobruk by our heavy bombers and widespread fires caused, visible 30 miles away, among barracks, stores, sheds and motor transport, concentrations. Our aircraft returned without loss to their bases.

In the Sudan, east of Gallabat, our patrols again inflicted casualties on the enemy. There is no change in Kenya.

Italian Losses OVER 30,000 PRISONERS. DETAILS OF BARDIA SURRENDER LONDON, January 7. Australian troops are gathering in prisoners and war material at Bardia. Prisoners counted so far exceed 30,000. Tanks, guns, huge supplies of stores, and other war materials have been taken, and it is estimated that Italy had lost one-half of the guns, lorries, and ammunition massed by Marshal Graziani for the assault on Egypt, besides a substantial part of the army itself. It is states that 94.000 Italian losses comprise 70,000 prisoners, and 24,000 killed, wounded, or otherwise put out of action. It is indicated that the British took most of the equipment of the Italian divisions, including tanks, artillery, anti-aircraft and anti-tank guns. The total of 94,000 Italian troops put out of action in Libya includes the captu: . or destruction of three Italian metropolitan divisions, the First and Second Blackshirt Divisions, the First and Second Libyan Divisions, and three Maletta mechanised forces, probably in the nature of a mechanised division. Aspecial communique issued by G.H.Q., Cairo, on Tuesday evening, states: During the operations at Bardia, three Blackshirt commanders deserted their troops, leaving the Regular commanders to fight on.

Regarding the naval bombardment during the Bardia operations, it is considered remarkable this was never in any way interrupted by the intervention of enemy naval forces. Had the Italian Navy taken part, the British ships would inevitably have been obliged to slacken the attack and defend themselves. In fact, it was left to enemy aircraft to make an ineffective attempt to interfere with the operations. A graphic story of the fall of Bardia has been told by Mr Richard Dimbleby, the British Broadcasting Corporation’s observer in the Western Desert. He was the first correspondent to enter Bardia. When he entered the town driving an army lorry, Italians were still in the streets and snipers’ bullets were whistling through the air. Small parties of Australians went out on Friday morning to cut communications, he says, and on Friday afternoon the advance troops were told that they would be wanted in a few hours for the final assault. He was at Fort Capuzzo when the news came through that the Australians were soon to go into action, and he was given permission to go up to the front. The party drove forward from Capuzzo towards Bardia, and as they went forward Italian guns still in Bardia were searching the road, and shells were falling on either side. They drove through continuous shelling, with British shells passing overhead battering the Italian positions. At the northern end of the town they passed through battered defences, with burnt-out cars and lorries littering the road. They passed into the inner defence ring and went on until a bend in the road took them to higher ground, from where they gained their first view of Bardia. From here, Mr Dimbleby added, he saw three British tanks advance towards the town, and behind them was a company of infantry moving in to silence the last of the guns outside. Here he talked with officers who had been in the fighting. He was told how one man jumped into a machine-gun nest where there were seven armed Italians. They surrendered immediately. One Australian officer, armed with a pistol and supported by seven men, walked alone into the entrance of a cave and called on anyone inside to come out and surrender. Out walked 200 Italians, who threw down their arms and gave themselves up. Mr Dimbleby said that he passed column after column of prisoners, who were evidently not sorry to be captured, nor did he find any Italian who spoke in. favour of Signor Mussolini or the war. Daylight was just fading when battalion headquarters established contact with the patrols who had just entered Bardia. Mr Dimbleby added, and he was then given permission to enter the town. He drove an army lorry, without lights, to avoid snipers. As he neared the town he saw the most astonishing sight of an

extraordinary day—a gathering crowd of Italian officers and men. They had not been captured and any .of them could have wiped out his party, but they did nothing. Some of them even rushed up to him to surrender. Other than the patrols who had broken into the town, Mr Dimbleby and those with him were the first to enter. Inside there was no resistance. It was strangely silent after the last batches of prisoners had been taken. This was Bardia, the praised, extolled, and boosted Bardia, the bastion of Italy in Libya, the corner-stone of the Fascist Empire in Africa. Now it was only another base for the advance of British troops to the west. The men who had defended Bardia stumbled away to prison camps in Egypt.

The British attack was described in a broadcast from Rome as a fiasco, and no mention has been made of the Italian losses in men, tanks and guns. Material losses must run into some millions of pounds. An R.A.F. Middle East communique states: Further raids were carried out on Tobruk, yesterday, by the R.A.F. Bombs fell on the foreshore and military objectives in the town, but full details of the damage could not be observed. Derna and Martuba were also raided successfully. In the Tobruk area, a CR42 was shot down, ana another enemy fighter was probably destroyed, while other enemy aircraft were damaged. The enemy Aerodrome 'for Tobruk (El Adem) has been evacuated and forty aircraft, in a damaged condition, owing to the R.A.F. bombing, have been captured by our troops. It is revealed that American ’planes are operating with the R.A.F. in Egypt. Reconnaissances by Glenmartin ’planes are described as vitally important. The latest tribute to the British eight-gun fighters over Libya comes from an American correspondent in Cairo. He says that Italian bombers are now carrying an extra man. This member of the crew is known as a "Hurricane spotter.” He keeps a look-out for British fighters, , and when one appears he calls out “Hurricane!” The whole of the Italian crew then bail out. Further details of the action in which the monitor Terror ana the .gunboats “Ladybird” and “Aphis” bombarded the Italian positions at Bardia have been released. According to a correspondent with the Mediterranean Fleet, the monitor threw shells weighing a ton into the Italian positions, creating great havoc and destruction. The Italian batteries replied, but their fire was ineffective.

The ships were unsuccessfully attacked by torpedo-carrying aeroplanes and bombers. The only naval action that the Italians ventured to take was to send a fleet of motorboats to the attack, but these were repelled by the secondary armament on the monitor.

Bardia Garrison NO HEART IN FIGHTING. FASCIST PROPAGANDA DESCRIBED. (Received January 8, 11.10 p.m.) LONDON, January 7There was a commentary on the fall of Bardia transmitted to-day by the Rome wireless, for the benefit of Italians living abroad. The Fascist propaganda machine tried hard to minimise the importance of the defeat of a large part of the army, which had been designed to effect a conquest of Egypt, but in the face of facts which will he known by Italians living in countries where the press and wireless are mere tools of totalitarian propaganda, it is difficult to see how much comfort is to be obtained from the statements given by the Rome broadcasting station. However much the magnitude of the defeat may be disguised from Signor Mussolini’s dupes living in Italy, Italians abroad know perfectly well that the fact that over thirty thousand Italian soldiers were captured at Bardia alone can hardly support the grandiloquent phraseology of the Fascist announcer, who said: "The Italian soldier knows how to fight and how to die as well as the best soldier in the • world, even,” the broadcasting continued: "if he (the Italian soldier) can foresee the outcome of a struggle, and has no hope of victory from the very beginning.”

No British soldier, remembering the Italians’ courage in the last war, would ever criticise the bravery of the Italian troops when properly equipped and led; and fighting for a cause in which they can, and do, believe, but an admission that these unfortunate men knew that they had not a hope of either reinforcement or of victory, makes of the laxge number of prisoners, coupled with the extremely small casualties inflicted on the Australian troops, a proof to demonstrate that the Italian regiments have had no heart in the fight. Knowing that there was no other prospect than that of death or of capture, they would well know, as Italians abroad also know, that they were being offered as a human sacrifice on the altar of Fascist Party prestige.

British Expectations ITALIAN RETREAT. ‘ RIGHT TO TRIPOLI. (Received January 9. 12.56 a.m.) . LONDON, January 8. "The Times” Cairo correspondent says: “The military authorities here believe that Marshal Graziani may even be compelled to retire to Tripoli. His alternatives are to pour more men into. Tobruk, and there to risk their being cut off, like the garrison of Bardia. or else to fall back to Banghazi, where the Italians would be isolated, since there is nothing between there and Tripoli, which i= 509 miles away LONDON, January 7.

A London spokesman expressed the view that an Italian counter-attack could come only from Tobruk, and the rapidity of the British advance made this extremely unlikely. Britain would press home the advantage, he thought, while Italian nerves were still shaken by their reverses.

Italian Admission MAY RETREAT FURTHER. (Received January 9, 12.59 a.m.) LONDON, January 8. The Rome Radio has admitted that the Italians might nossibly be “forced to abandon further Libyan territory.” It added: “New defence

lines that are designed to hold off the British offensive, have been established.” The commentator, however., did not indicate where the lines are located. LOSSES OF 'PLANES. ITALIAN TOTAL OVER 500. (Received January 9, 12.59 a.m.) CAIRO, January 8. A Royal Air Force spokesman said: Over five hundred Italian 'planes have been shot down in Africa since Italy’s entry into the war. The British losses have been about eighty ’planes.

FASTING IN ITALY. VATICAN CITY, January 7. In view of the present situation, the Pope has absolved the people of Italy from all fasts and abstinences in 1941, with the exception of Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. AUSTRALIAN TROOPS, LONDON, January 6. Newspaper correspondents, who talked to Australian troops said that the soldiers described the attack as “two glorious days’ fighting.” The “Aussies” looked grim and terrifying in steel helmets over balaclavas.

A telegram sent by Mr S. M. Bruce, Australian High Commissioner in London, to General Blarney reads: “Sincere congratulations to you and all ranks under your command for the great show, from Australians in England.” Messages reaching London from Australia indicate that the enthusiasm with which the capture of Bardia was in the Commonwealth was as great as that with which the British people acclaimed the triumph of the gallant Australian troops. A natural comparison springing to mind with both Australians and British is that of Gallipoli, where the previous generation of Commonwealth soldiers covered themselves with imperishable glory. Typical of the expressions voiced on all sides is the remark of the “Melbourne Sun”: “Besides the pride Australia feels in the winning of this first big-scale action by volunteers, the victory in the desert is an inspiring example of Empire team-work.” SYDNEY, January 7.

The Prime Minister (Mr Menzies) pointed out that ' the number of Italians taken prisoner greatly exceeded the "number of Australians who took part in the action. He said that the victory marked a turning point in the Empire’s fortunes, and added that Australia took General Wavell’s choice of Australions to lead the assault as a high compliment.