TANK BATTLE IN EGYPT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 4 November 1942, Page 2

TANK BATTLE IN EGYPT

SAVAGE HEAD-ON CUSH BULK OF FORCES BELIEVED ENGAGED (Rec. 1 p.m.) London, Nov. i. The Associated Press of Great Britain correspondent with the Eighth Army says the attack began over .a 4000-yard front and had by morning reached a point where there were no fixed enemy defences ahead. The second greatest barrage of Ihfe campaign began at 9.5 p.m. on Sunday and lasted without interruption until 5 a.m. on Monday. The “Daily Telegraph’s” correspondent with the Eighth Army says botfi' General Montgomery and F7e!d-Mar*hat Rommel are believed to have throVn the bulk of their available tank forerf into thu; savage head-on clash. It appears that the deadlock on the El Alamein front has been broken and th© way opened for a battle of manoeuvre in which armoured strength will -be used. "We do not yet possess freedom of tank movements in spite of the fact that we have destroyed and put out of action quite a lot of enemy tanks and < taken many prisoners,” says an agency dispatch from Egypt on Tuesday even«ing. It adds: “Fighting in and around Abbaquir is most fluid and is still inconclusive. The Germans have organised a triangular defence line in a section of the front along an old Roman*, road. Throughout Monday big tanks* were in action as a result of a magnificent job done by British and Dominjoq. infantry, who forced a big gap in the** enemy line, enabling our armoured forces to come up in strength.”—P.A. and 8.0. W.