AXIS REARGUARD POUNDED

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 22 December 1942, Page 5

AXIS REARGUARD POUNDED

Rommel's Retreat in Libya ALLIED PATROLS 120 MILES N.E. OF EL AGHEILA (Rec. I 0 a.m.) London, Dec. 21. The Eighth Army’s advanced guards after all day fighting in the Nofilia area are harrying the Axis rearguard around Sultan, 30 miles east of Sirte. The main Axis forces are reported to be well west of Sultan. Their principal transport columns are already half-way between El Agheila and Tripoli. *So far there is no indication from British sources that the enemy retreat is halting. British correspondents state that fighter-bombers are still pounding the fleeing Axis forces along 1 00 miles of unprotected coast road. Allied forces are smashing transport, and not only destroying material but blocking the road between Buerat and Misurata, which isj bordered by salt marshes. As Feld-Marshal Rommel s fleeing arm J is daily nearer Tripoli there is evidence that part of the Italia* garrison is going to Tunis, where the French captured a group. rhW is the first suggestion that Italians are abandoning the remnant of Mussolini’s African Empire.

A Cairo communique states: “The enemy continues his withdrawal and our forwerd patrols yesterday were m touch with elements of his forces in the neighbourhood of Sultan, 120 miles north-east of El Agheila. Further east the work of mine clearing is proceeding continuously. Air activity over the battle area was on a reduced

scale although some Allied fighterbombers operated against enemy transport on the Sirte- Buerat road. Targets at Buerat, 80 miles west of Sultan, were again bombed on Saturday night. A single Junkers was shot down over the sea off Port Said yesterday and an Me was destroyed off the Tunisian coast. Three of our aircraft are missing.” DEADLY ENEMY MINES So deadly were the German mines on the road to El Agheila that it kept six field companies fully employed three days and nights clearing them. Every fiendish device imaginable to stop the advancing army was used. N.Z. FAST COLUMNS A correspondent cabling from Cairo to-day said New Zealand fast columns operating with British armoured forces continue to chase Field Marshal Rommel’s troops across Tripolitania. Although there are no reports of fighting of any large scale, it is known that various skirmishes have taken place. By the last light of last evening our advanced forces were five miles west of Sultan on a line running south of the coastal road. Rommel’s withdrawal has speeded up considerably and he retreated another 15 miles yesterday. ENEMY’S FUTURE POLICY

Now that Field Marshal Rommel’s forces are about halfway from El Agheila to Tripoli in their headlong flight, the opinion is forming in London that the enemy’s future efforts in Africa will be confined to retaining control of the Sicilian narrows as long as possible. It is expected that the forces in Tripolitania will aim at making an effective junction with those in Tunisia. Rearguard actions will probably be fought at points of vantage in Tripolitania. Although the junction of Rommel with General von Nehring in Tunisia would strengthen the defence of the enemy’s African bridgehead. a simultaneous fusing of the two Allied campaigns from east and west might strengthen the attack. The effects of the coming fusion are already visible in the air as the Eighth Army operates airfields nearer and nearer the Tunisian theatre. At the same time the Navy’s freedom of action against enemy supply ships increases daily with the advance of the British land and air forces towards Tripoli.—P.A. and 8.0. W.