RUMOURS OF ITALIAN ADVANCE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23761, 14 September 1940, Page 12

RUMOURS OF ITALIAN ADVANCE

NO OFFICIAL CONFIRMATION SOME TROOP MOVEMENTS REPORTED By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright (Received September 13, S.-10 p.m.) Sopt .. 13 No news is available from British sources regarding Italian claims that the invasion of Egypt has begun. The Rome correspondent of the British United Press says informed persons declare that reports that the Italian offensive has begun in Egypt cannot be denied, but official confirmation must await a communique. From authoritative circles in London it was learned earlier that/ while, in the past day or two, there have been Italian troop movements in the north of Libya, in the neighbourhood of Capuzzo —movements which were to be expected—no Italian troops as yet have crossed the Egyptian frontier. It has been suggested that the Italians are forming three armies for the attack on Egypt. According to these reports one army is to go along the coast, via Solium, the second is to operate north-west toward Wadi Haifa from ICassala, and the third is to advance along the Sudan-Egyptian frontier from the neighbourhood of Taheida, which is its base. This army, it is presumed, will attempt to travel straight across 400 or 500 miles of almost waterless desert toward Wadi Haifa, to join the Kassala army. n Informed military circles in London, while regarding it as quite possible that there might be raids, emphasise that reports of attack coming from this direction by any force which could fairly be described as an army should be treated with reserve. As far as is known there are no German formations supporting the Italian forces in Libya. The Times says that combined operations by the Royal Air For9e and the Fleet Air Arm have rendered Tobruk, the Italian port on the Libyan coast, utterly useless as a supply depot for Italian troops and as a base for submarines and warships. The harbour has been cleared of crowded shipping, including five submarines, of which at least one was sunk. The harbour is now littered with ships sunk or lying drunkenly on their sides.