Nearly 30,000 Prisoners Taken

Manawatu Times, Volume 66, Issue 5, 7 January 1941, Page 5

Nearly 30,000 Prisoners Taken

Dash, Resource and Courage of Australians Italians Have Now Lost 70,000 in Desert (British Official Wireless.) Received Monday, 5.5 p.m. LONDON, January 6. The Italian garrison at Bardia has surrendered. The Italian flae was hauled down from the mast over Government House. Australian infantry have mopped up the last remaining pockets of resistance. The British forces captured between 2b,000 and 30,000 prisoners. Among the prisoners is the general commanding the garrison, an army corps commander and four other generals. The booty so far counted includes 45 light and four medium tanks Ail this has been achieved within 36 hours of the launching of the * The Daily Telegraph's correspondent at Bardia says at the lowest computation the Italians have now lost a force of 70,000 men in North Africa. . A communique from General Headquarters at Cairo covered the operations until Saturday evening: "Before nightfall on Saturday evening, Italian troops occupying the whole of the northern sector of the defences of Bardia were forced to surrender. Our patrols have penetrated into Bardia itself, and the enemy resistance is now confined to a restricted area in the south-east zone of the perimeter defences. More than 15,000 prisoners were captured, and operations to mop up the remaining centres of resistance are continuing satisfactorily.”