ATTACK PENDING

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23850, 28 December 1940, Page 7

ATTACK PENDING

BRITISH TROOPS AT BARDIA REINFORCEMENTS ARRIVING MEN TAKING UP THEIR POSITIONS B,v Tel'arraph—Press Association—Copyright (Received December 27, 9.30 p.m.) LOJTDOX, Bsc. 27 The British and Dominion troops round Bardia are being reinforced and are taking up positions for an attack. The shelling of Bardia continues and is increasing in intensity. I he Ankara radio says that a British break through the Bardia defences will involve continuous and accurate fire. Heavy tank units are now being concentrated round the town. The British positions were reported earlier to be still roughly eight miles from the town, except at some points where the lines had been advanced for a few hundred yards. 1 he Cairo correspondent of the Times says the enemy has not attempted to relieve or support the garrison. The only outside sign of interest in the fate of the beleaguered troops is an increase in aerial activity. Dive-bombers, operating from 70 miles behind Bardia, swoop down out of the sun against Empire troops lying unprotected in the open desert round Solium. No German aeroplanes have appearecJ and no Italian warship has arrived to help the garrison. The A 1 exandria correspondent of the Times, after his return from a voyage with the Mediterranean Fleet, says: "We sailed about 3000 miles without a sign of the enemy except a floating mine, which was promptly despatched. What does that mean? Whatever the answer may be—whether Italy is short of fuel or her servicemen tired of war or the whole nation war-weary—the real story is that the Mediterranean Fleet has.won the Battle of the Mediterranean. A few months ago we were always bombed at sea; now we never see a bomber." An Italian communique reports lively artillery duels round Bardia, and says an attack against an Italian position in the desert was repulsed. The Italians, it adds, heavily bombed an enemy advance base and also enemy motorised units in Southern Libya. A Cairo headquarters communique states that there has been no change in the situation on the Sudan frontier. A British fighting patrol inflicted a number of casualties on the enemy east of Kassala, returning with one prisoner and some equipment. There is nothing important to report on the other fronts.