WELL INSIDE LIBYA

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 11 November 1942, Page 5

WELL INSIDE LIBYA

REMNANTS OF GERMAN FORCE BRITISH FORCES ATTACKING TOBRUK Wellington, This Day. Forward units of the Eighth Army chasing the remnants of Field-Marshal Rommel’s Afrika Korps are now well inside Libya. A report from one correspondent indicates that the British forces are attacking Tobruk, while others have by-passed it and are sweeping westward.

The consensus of military opinion in Egypt is that the enemy will not be able to stand for long anywhere because of our air superiority and the regained sea power in the Mediterranean, says the British United Press correspondent with the Eighth Army. The “Daily Mail’s” Cairo correspondent says the Eighth Army suffered comparatively slight losses, and should overrun any resistance before BenThe German s may choose to fight back at Tmimi if they get there in sufficient strength.

The “Times” correspondent quotes a senior tank officer as saying that the Eighth Army would have cut off the entire Afrika Korps instead of merely a major part of it except for rain, which slowed up the British during two vital days, which allowed the Germans to get a few thousand men and a fraction of their original tank strength into Libya. The tank officer added: “The British still have not an anti-tank gu n equal to the Germans’ 88 mm., but for the first time we have a tank as good if not better. The Shermans helped us to victory. We were outnumbered in the last campaign by two to one in tank fire-power which is more important than numerical superiority.”

Reports from the desert continue to emphasise the plight of the Italians, whom the Germans deserted after seizing useable transport. British planes and land parties are reported to be searching the desert for wandering gioups of Italians who are lost and without food.

The British United Press correspondent with the Eighth Army say!*: “We took Mersa Matruh by a pincer operation, bagging all defenders.” A German communique says that German and Italian troops in North Africa withdrew farther westwards. The enemy thrusting behind them wer e stemmed in fierce rearguard fighting. An Italian communique states that the enemy kept up the pressure against Axis units in Egypt, which are forming a new line. The Berlin correspondent of the Stockholm newspaper “Allehanda” re-

ports that seven thousand American troops with full equipment arrived in Egypt.—P.A.