LIBYAN TRIUMPH

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23880, 3 February 1941, Page 9

LIBYAN TRIUMPH

'SURPRISED CAPTIVES GENERAL IN TEARS OVERCOME BY DEFEAT •LIFE WORK THROWN AWAI [from our own con respondent] LONDON, Jan. 3 In all the praise given to the brillian Brii'-li strategy which has routed tin Italians in the Western Desert, noni has impressed me more than that of twi Italian generals, Divisional Genera Cerio and General Mazzetti, who, witl their staff of four officers, travelled a: prisoners of war with me in one o Britain's most modern destroyers, say W. F. Hartin in the Sunday Dispatch Our decks, lie adds, were lined witl hundreds of their men—a mere fractiot of those still awaiting evacuation iron places such as Mersa Matruh and Sid Barrani,' where, in the words of out British sailor, "They still seem to bt gathering like swarms of locusts." Most of the Italian prisoners are ir A deplorable condition, their uniform: bedraggled, their boots split in even seam, their dark, unshaven faces pinched with hunger and privation With a pitiful eagerness those who had blankets, or even a couple of sacks cherished them as their sole protection against the cold desert night. Contrasting Personalities Mazzetti complained to me as he sipped a glass of sherry in the destroyer's ward-room that lie and his staff were taken so completely by surprise by the rush of our troops that lie lost all his persona! belongings and had now only the clothes in which he stood. Mazzetti. swarthy, scowling, his breast scintillating with medal ribbons and Fascist insignia, was obviously a party man. Near him sat Cerio with tears coursing silently down the furrows engraved on his face by many years of Libyan sun and sand. He shivered with the ague of coastal iever. 1 was glad to be able to get him a glass of brandy. There was little one could do to comfort him in his agony of mind—this old and broken man who had been a pioneer in Libya before the last war and who now saw his life's work thrown away for political reasons with which he obviously had no sympathy. Be wore not a single Fascist decoration that 1 could identify. No Inkling of Disaster "His own men would not recognise him," said his aide-de-camp to me. "He has aged 10 years in the last three days. During that time we have been cut off from water and food supplies. Even so, none of us had any inkling of the disaster that hung over us. We simply thought the water pipeline and the road had been temporarily cut by a British raiding force." At luifch General Cerio took some rice from the curry, which was the hot dish on the wardroom menu, and mixed it with cold bully beef. He expressed himself delighted with the food—the first lie had eaten in four days. Even more did he appreciate the coffee, which had been unknown in Libya for many months. "It was a brilliantly conceived operation by/; your Army," he said. "Moreover, it was carried out with faultless Ijrecision. Until an hour or two before leing surrounded we had no idea of the extent of the manoeuvre. Devastating Attack "We 10 miles south-east of Sidi Barrani in one of the perimeter camps. All our artillery and most of our mechanised stuff was in Sidi Barrani itself. "When your tanks rolled up firing heavily on our lines we were prepared to fall back to stronger positions, covered by our artillery, but suddenly we were, attacked from the rear. "Your mechanised columns which had cut the coast road and our water pipeline had divided east and west. It was the eastward sweep which had overwhelmed our defensive positions one after the other to take us in the rear. One hour before we were compelled to surrender I had 110 idea Sidi Barrani had fallen. "Ah, my friend." added the general, "what a mistake it was for us ever to have gone toward that. We .should have been prepared to march straight through to Alexandria last summer—or else not moved at all. Amazing Mechanisation "Sidi Barrani! What is it? First we bombarded it and then you bombarded it. And all that was left was a handful of brick-dust in the desert of sand. It was the /most vulnerable position. We knew it and you knew it —but what we did not know was the incredible degree of mechanisation your Forces had attained. "Where did it come from? And when you. tell me 'through the Mediterranean' I am still surprised, for yours is not the only fleet in the Mediterranean. Still, there your tanks were." He sighed before he continued: "Always we have had marvellous plans for mechanisation and re-equip-ment, but, alas! those plans are never fully realised. It has been the same story again and again. Now here is another tie feat to blemish the record of an army to which I, like many others, have given all my life and energies." Badoglio and Graziani The old general's emotion overcame him again. He trembled as he walked back from the table to an easy chair. His khaki drill tunic hung loosely about his ague-stricken frame. He brightened considerably, however, when a message came fYbn/tlie captain inviting him to the bridge. All the Italian staff were completely ignorant of what had happened in Greece, adds the correspondent. They were much more prepared to talk about Badoglio's resignation, though they did so with many headshakes. They said' that Admiral Cavagnari's resignation was a logical sequel, since Badoglio was his chief. "Indeed," said one of them, "if you British had not attacked so suddenly, we_ were fully anticipating Graziani's resignation. He, of course, is Badoglio's it.an also."