BESIEGING FORCES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23869, 21 January 1941, Page 7

BESIEGING FORCES

AUSTRALIAN PATROLS WORK DURING DARKNESS SOME CASUALTIES SUFFERED SYDNEY, .Tan. 18 Australian brigades which fought at Barclia moved up to Tobruk more than a week ago, and are now in position around a section of the 26-mile defence line protecting Tobruk, says the war correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald. Night after night, Australian patrols, crawling forward in darkness, have climbed through the anti-tank ditch which, on a four-mile section of the line is up to 12ft. deep and 18ft. wide, with the inner vertical side cut out of solid rock, and have been through the barbed wire beyond. Caught by Italian Fire Often the patrols have been met with heavy machine-gun and rifle fire from Italian posts and there have been some casualties. One patrol was enfiladed by a machine-gun posted in the anti-tank ditch itself. The job of the patrols is to measure the ditch, and to test the strength and discover the exact position of Italian wire entanglements and strong posts. In addition, patrolling is giving invaluable training "It is better to lose one man now than 50 when the battle begins,'' said one brigadier, whose men were the first into their Tobruk position. They are men from New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia. The brigadier said that the experience the men were gaining in these patrols would make a big difference when the attack was made. "We cannot make veterans in a day." he said. Behaviour Under Fire "On patrol the men are learning not to scatter when they suddenly come under machine-gun fire," he added. "They are learning how to move at night and are collecting essential information about the ditch, barbed-wire and strong posts." Before Tobruk is assaulted the commanders must be assured of adequate supplies of ammunition, food, petrol, and water on the spot. It is not the work of a day to move an army forward across a desert cut by only a single road and make it ready to carry out another attack against another fortress. A good proportion of the supplies are coming up by ship to Solium and as far as Mcrsa Matruh there is a railway, but there is a great strain on trucks and the maintenance units and engineers who are keeping the roads up to the mark. Nature oI Country The country in which the A.I.F. is now fighting is a rocky plateau with no vegetation, except thorny camel bush. Near the coast the plateau is cut by deep, steep-sided wadis, which help to make the east side of the Tobruk defences stronger. There are innumerable stone sangars (breastworks) scattered over the plateau, which are being used as shelters from the wind at night. The infantrymen are lying out behind these sangars, or in shallow trenches. There can be little movement- in daytime because on th<' plateau there is little shelter from eiieinv artillery and machine-guns except what the men can dig. On the eastern edge there are excellent battery positions on narrow saddles between wadis. where the enemy cannot hope to shoot accurately because he cannot observe his lire. His shells, except for an occasional lucky shot, iall out of sight into wadis on either side of the saddle. Most nights, as the men lie out in the desert, our bombers drone overhead on the way to 'lobruk. BULGARIAN RAILWAYS CURTAILMENT OF SERVICES LONDON, Jan. 19 The Belgrade radio savs the DirectorGeneral of the Bulgarian State Railway* stated that the necessity to save coal and also to repair locomotives compelled the curtailment of passenger traffic from Wednesday next. LOYAL SIKH LEADERS British Wireless LONDON, Jan. 1(1 Sikh leaders throughout the Punjab passed a resolution to form a Sikh Defence of India League, aiming at securing the maximum effort by Sikhs in defending India and ensuring a British victorv, states a message from Lahore The Maharajah of Patiala will be the president.