ABSOLUTE VICTORY FOR EIGHTH ARMY

Grey River Argus, 7 November 1942, Page 5

ABSOLUTE VICTORY FOR EIGHTH ARMY

EXCEEDS EXPECTATIONS OF GENERAL MONTGOMERY

“BOCHE COMPLETELY FINISHED IN NORTH AFRICA’* ' . - Hosts of Prisoners and Decimation of Retreating Enemy

(Received November 6, 11.20 p.m.) LONDONt, November 6. The announcement was made to-day .by General Montgomery * that the Eighth Army had achieved an absolute victory. "The enemy is no’w in full retreat,” he said. Our armour is now operating in the, enemy’is rear areas,, and has gone in to destroy him completely. For two nights the coastal road has been blocked with Axis traffic, four lines deep, trying to move westward. Those still facing us in the south will be put in the bag. The Axis forces are smashed. I never expected such a complete victory.” The British United Press correspondent quotes General Montgomery as saying: “The Boche is completely finished in North Africa.” LONDON, November 5. The British Headquarters comf munique at Cairo on Thursday morning stated: The Eighth Army on Wednesday continued to advance over the whole front. In the south the enemy is still holding a few isolated positions. In the north, the enemy has a screen of anti-tank guns and tanks which is withdrawing before our advancing forces.” General Montgomery, on Thursday morning, issued an order to the troops, stating: ‘‘The present battle has now lasted twelve days, during which our forces have fought so magnificently that the enemv is being worn. down. The enemy has just

reached breaking- point, and is trying to get his army away. The AlAir Force is taking heavy toll of his columns moving .west on the main coast road. The enemy is in our power, and is just about to crack. I . 'Call on all troops to keep up the pressure. and not relax for a moment. Complete victory is almost in sight. On your behalf. I sent a separate message to the R.A.F. thanking them for their quite magnificent support.” A British United Press correspondent says: We have left the enemy's solid defences far behind. This advance came after the fiercest tank and infantry battles. The enemy at first fought back grimly, but each day and night our troops t hacked their way through the Germans, who dug in in hastily improvised holes in the sand. Daily our guns massed thicker and thicker in the broadest lanes ever seen in Africa, and all the time our guns moved forward as the enemy moved back, and kept up an endless rain of shells. “As I watched this stupendous I battle. I had the impression that the Germans at last realised they were up against the might of the Allies, who are now equipped with all the might of their great factories. One

Red Cross officer said he had never seen so many German dead. Our artillery mainly caused this havoc. It was devastatingly intense, while our air support has been magnificent. It is only necessary to watch the R.A.F. in action to realise what vengeance we have stored up.” A Beirut message reports that Fighting French paratroops were active behind the enemy’s fines during the crucial phase of. the Alamein fighting, when they destroyed 30 enemy aircraft on. the ground. A press correspondent said; Wednesday night was relatively quiet. 'Sappers were again at work clearing numerous minefields beyond the (crescent ridge in front or which the 36 hours battle raged before the Germans started their withdrawal. /There were no signs of an armoured (battle on Thursday morning. The (enemy had evidently avoided costly (movements bv night, as offering too easy a target for the R.A.F. bombers. especially on Matruh Road. In fthe south, the withdrawal of the Gerimans continued. They were evidently afraid of being cut off, and abandoned even the splendidly protected Himeimat Fortress. All night the R.A.F., working formation after formation of bombers and fighter-bomb-ers, were going up to harass the enemy over the future battle-ground. Marshal Von Rommel is desperately trying to prevent the Eighth Army overrunning the beaten Axis armies, says Reu'ter’s military correspondent. His screen of anti-tank guns is an attemnt to save what he can from the wreckage, but the screen is no protection for “soft” transport, which our bombers continue to attack. The fact that some positions in the south are still holding out is not surprising. The collapse was so sudden, it was obviously impossible to inform 1 all the Axis sectors, much less instruct them how to act. Montgomery is following up the Axis forces with the same methodical persistence with which he drove them from their positions. He is clearly not being distracted to wipe out odd groups of roving tanks. Enemy Rearguard Hammered

MAINLY ITALIANS. (Rec. 8.10) _ LONDON, Nov. 5. The Eighth Army on Thursday night was pressing hard on the heels of Marsha] Rommel’s forces whose -rearguard, in the northern sector was reported to consist large of Italian troops. The rearguard was covered by a. screen of anti-tank guns and tanks. The screen after a relentless •hammering, broke at many points. Guns were found intact with their crews dead beside them. The Eighth Army continued to mow down the enemy in the grimmest fighting seen in the desert. Leaflets, announcing' a breakthrough, and urging the enemy to surrender in order to avoid massacre, were dropped over the fleeing enemy. A f,;.F;.G. correspondent stated that S>idi Abdelrahman had been captured, I ft? said that prisoners were pouring into cages. They v/ere mostly Italians, BOMBED ALL NIGHT. RETREAT!NG* ENEMY FORCE*. (Rec. 9.50; f/iNGON, Nov. 5. Fifty tons of high’ explosive . were dropped, hour after hotrr, during Wednesday night, upon Marshal Rommel’s fleeing forces. Aircrews reported numerous fires; many merging into conflagrations, one of the biggest of which blocked the El Daba road, which watt tightly packed with enemy vehicles, and thus simplified the bombers’ tuns)',. Few bombs v/ere ineffectual. The night's attacks were mostly concentrated on roads v/est of

Fuka, along which a heterogeneous mass of vehicles was streaming westward Enemy beach concentrations were also effectively attacked. Light bombers and fighter bombers took over the night raiders’ task at the first light of dawn. COASTAL ROAD. ■ BOMBED AND SHELLED. .(Rec. 11.555.) - LONDON, Nov. 6. The Egyptian coast road, between Fuka and El Daba, along which Marshal Von Rommel’s broken forces are retreating, was bombed on Thursday night, as well as beaches alongside the road, which were crowded with enemy transport and tanks. Vichv radio says the British Navy is shelling the coastal road.

ENEMY'S RETREAT

To Mersa Matruh COLLAPSE DUE TO LACK OF PETROL. (Rec. 12.30.) LONDON, Nov. 6. Mr McMillan, British United Press correspondent, according to latest reports reaching Field Headquarters says:— . ’ Retreating Axis forces already.are westwards of Sidi Haneish, just south-eastwards of Mersa Matruh. Our infantry ,with wrecking gangs, are clearing aside smashed enemy vehicles along the route. They are already well beyond Fuka. The enemy is running so fast that it is becoming a race to get our ’planes installed to keed up with him. Fires from burning lorries dot the horizon for miles around, marking the line of retreat. They represent a good -part of Marshal Von Rommel’s equipment gone up in smoke. Intelligence reports indicate that the Axis collapse was caused by the lack of petrol and oil for the armoured forces. NO TRUCE TO BURY THE DEAD LONDON, Nov. 5Italian forces who in one sector requested a truce to bury the dead were not accorded a truce. Axis Resistance

ENEMY REPORT.

LONDON, November 5. Von Rommel has a screen of antitank guns for his retreating forces. A n Italian communique says: All through yesterday, between Alamem and Fuka, there was bitter, bloody tank and infantry fighting. The Italians and Germans, after the strongest resistance, withdrew in the evening to new lines further west. The British losses of men and material were heavy. Our losses were severe. Raids on Tobruk and Benghazi caused considerable damage.

It is too early to say that Marshal on Rommel’s armv is on the verge of destruction, comments Major Eliot in the New York “Herald-Tribune”. Von Rommel is too careful a soldier not to prepare strong rear positions to which he can retire, but there are no natural positions with strong southern flanks before the EgyptLibyan frontier. A German communique states that the Axis tank army is putting up the strongest resistance against the massed enemy attacks.. Our troops in some sectors retired according to plan, to a prepared second line. The pocket of German troops on the coast has now been cleared, according to a report from a 8.8. C. observer in Egypt. Some of these troops may have got away, he states, but only to join the rest of their army in flight. ( ENEMY STAND IN SOUTH. LONDON, Nov. 5. Enemy positions are holding out in the- south area of the Egyptian battle front. They are fairly scattered. They mainly are manned by Italians.

GERMAN COMMANDERS. WAS ROMMEL ABSENT ? / LONDON. November 5. Nothing is known here of the movements of Marshal Von Rommel himself, but it is thought likely he was not there, at any rate, at the beginning -of the offensive. “Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung” on October 15, stated he had returned to Egypt, but this was not necessarily true. , General Von Stumme, whose death was announced yesterday, was believed to have deputised for Marshal Von Rommel during the latter’s absence in Germany. Lately, he has probably been at Rommel’s side. He was reputed to be the man from whom Rommel learned to handle the panzer formations. General Stumme fought in Greece and captured Salonika and Athens, and served in South Russia. General Von Thoma, now a prisoner, recently took command of the Afrika Korps from General Nehring. He commanded a panzer regiment in the Polish campaign and a panzer division in Russia, last Winter. Press correspondents with the Eighth Army give some idea of the toll taken of the retreating enemy. “Thursday will probably prove one of the most successful days the Allied Air Forces have ever had. The •Matrup Road is almost littered with vehicles and carcases. Fires are still burning here and there.” The situation of the Axis forces in Egypt is compared in London with that in which the Allied) forces found themselves in Northern France in 1940. The Allied air forces were able to take full advantage of their superiority to attack eneniv communications, and in the first stage, iattacked the enemv indirectly by hitting supplies. In the second, they were directed against the ground forces, consequently most of the losses suffered bv the Allied air forces have been due to ground defence in low-llyina attacks. , T K (R<w. 7.50) LONDON, -Nov. 5. A 8.8. C. correspondent in Egypt sfcl.es: German dead in Egvpt include General Von Summerman, commander of the Ninetieth Division, also General Von Prittzitz, commander of the Fifth Panzers.