SIDI REZEGH STILL MAIN ARENA

New Zealand Herald, Volume 78, Issue 24133, 27 November 1941, Page 9

SIDI REZEGH STILL MAIN ARENA

HEROIC BRITISH TANK CREWS

graphic stories from battlefield By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright Received November 26, 11.50 p.m.) LONDON, Nor. 28 The fighting in the Sidi Rezegh area is as fierce as ever. A large area has been left piled up with burned-out tanks and lorries. The Allied troops have been reinforced, but there is no sign that - reinforcements have succeeded in reaching the enemy. Casualties 0 n both sides have been heavy. The New Zealanders continue to push along the coastal road and may be the first to make contact with the Tobruk garrison. Some German forces have left the Tcbruk perimeter and are moving round to check the New Zealanders* advance. While the British continue to hold Sidi Rezegh, Axis forces have pushed as far down as Sidi Muftah, eight miles to the southof Sidi Rezegh, where desperate tank engagements continued all last week-end. The force from Tobruk, which is five miles outside the Tobruk perimeter, is reported to be "comfortable." The plight of the Axis forces cut off as the result of the New Zealanders' push must now be serious, and if the New Zealanders retain their positions Solium and Hellfire Pass must shortly fall like ripe fruit. ' May Continue for Days or Weeks Some British tanks are now roaming the desert looking for Axis troops, while in several places groups of German tanks are fighting like trapped lions. Some have taken the offensive.' This struggle, states a correspondent, may continue for days, and possibly for weeks. It is estimated that there are now more Italian than German tanks' fit for action, says the Daily Telegraph's Cairo correspondent. The Italian tanks are 1 3-tonners and are not considered dangerous. For sheer cold heroism there can have been little in this or any other war to beat the British tank crews, who, equipped with lighter guns and thinner armour, have fought off massive German medium tanks armed with guns twice the size, says the Times' correspondent with the British armoured brigade. To ensure that the German panzers would be brought to action it was necessary to make a bold attempt to contain them within the triangle SollumSidi Omar-Tdbruk. This involved the division of our armoured forces, whereas the Germans were able to concentrate against one of our brigades. After seeing the disposition of the British forces, General Rommel has been trying to knock out the British tank brigades one by one. Rommel's Gamble for a Break-Through The correspondent of the Daily Express with the Eighth Army, in a despatch delayed since Sunday, says the coastal road from El Adem to Bardia was jammed with a great mass of enemy troops, guns and transports slowly moving westward. German tanks and artillery, moving ahead, had been trying for 36 hours to blitz their way through the British lines. General Rommel left the Italian division and other Axis units in the Bardia and Hellfire Pass areas to their fate while he gambled everything on breaking through to the west. For 12 hours a single English' armoured unit held Rommel back. It was the same unit that took Capuzzo 18 months ago. On the Sidi Rezegh airfield the unit was outnumbered almost ihree to one, and'although the front ranks were decimated, it held out until it was relieved. Every man —Brigadier, staff officers and dpher clerks—took to the guns at critical moments. On Sunday morning the unit's regimental colours were still flying and the unit was preparing to go into the barrage again. Air Shuddered with Thunder of Guns On Saturday the German heavy guns which for seven months had been pounding Tobruk were turned on the English unit in preparation for the counter-attack. The enemy possessed enough guns to keep the air shuddering with their thunder. Men could be seen from the rolling black smoke of heavy shells, through which vehicles dashed back and forth. British mobile artiller3' ceaselessly crept through the barrage to new positions among the escarpment rocks overlooking EI Adem. The actual fighting front was ever changing and often obscured by drifting hanks of smoke, dust and flame. Ground bombing followed intensive dive-bombing by Stukas. As darkness fell' the Germans, by sheer weight of metal, closed in on the Sidi Rezegh airfield. As we moved back the Germans advanced, stabbing anywhere through the night, but the machineguns did not rest. At dawn the shelling was redoubled, and the horizon again disappeared in smoke. First Night Tank Action of Campaign The correspondent, in a later despatch, says that late on Monday afternoon Italians from the west and Germans from the north-east cut through the base of the tongue of British territory running up to Tobruk from the south. Over 100 German tanks fell on the South African formation. Germans were seen right inside the South African camp. A British armoured formation rushed to the scene and flung tanks into the first night action of the campaign. Before dawn 25 German and seven Italian tanks had been destroyed, in addition to the tanks demolished by the South Africans. Only a small proportion of Rommel's 280 tanks originally in this area are now mobile. Between Tobruk and Bardia the Germans brought only kalf a dozen tanks against us, and they were forced back westward. Incredible mixups are occuring all over the battlefield. British and German units frequently unknowingly camp within a mile of each other. A German radio van once lumbered through British headquarters arid was captured intact. Lost vehicles and even convoys are roaming in all directions over the desert