LULL WELL USED

New Zealand Herald, Volume 78, Issue 24141, 6 December 1941, Page 11

LULL WELL USED

HIGH SPEED REPAIRS BATTLEFIELD SALVAGE FRONT LINE WORKSHOPS (Reed. 8.30 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 4 A Cairo headquarters communique states that during the last 24 hours the lull in the fighting continued. In one small engagement three Italian tanks were destroyed. On the main front south-east of Tobruk some small bodies of. the enemy, endeavouring to move toward the,-, Sidi Aziez area, were engaged by mobile columns. In the frontier area our forces'continue their pressure on isolated centres of resistance in that region. General Rummel is massing panzers and infantry south-east of Tobruk but the southern desert is ours and everywhere field workshops are going full blast recovering and repairing guns, tanks and equipment, says the Daily Express correspondent with the Eighth Army. Forges and smithies in the front line are mending tank tracks and reconditioning tanks and other vehicles by "cannibalisation" —making up a new vehicle from several damaged vehicles. Huge crane lorries behind the lines sweep across the desert to disabled tanks, let down a ramp and pull the tanks on. One section recovered seven tanks one morning. Scout caxs locate others which can be snatched nocturnally from under the noses of the Germans. The Daily Express military correspondent says members of ordnance corps in the field are constantly in action. Repairing tanks under heavy fire, they often have to drop tools and take up rifles or man anti-tank guns to beat off attacks. They have taken spare engines to the battle and changed damaged engines while fighting went on around them. Ordnance field lorries are amazingly packed repair shops, capable of handling all but major repairs. Hundreds of engineers under 25 are required for supervising the maintenance and repair of tanks and other mechanised equipment, says the Daily Express industrial correspondent. The Government is instituting an intensive training course for engineers to replace any thus taken from industry The services will also be combed for men suitable for this course, who will later receive commissions. .

BATTLES OF TANKS DETERMINED ENEMY COMPARISON OF ADVANTAGES ' LONDON. Dec. 4 Tlie Daily Telegraph's Cairo correspondent says the British tank units have waged two battles a day for 11 days against a determined enemy. We are fighting' a German corps d'elite which never considered retreat or surrender, but which will damage us as much as it can as long as it has any kick left. The British have the advantage of considerable new units, but are at a disadvantage because the majority of the German tanks are bigger. The German weight in this campaign has been out-countered by the British speed, manoeuvrability and numerical superiority. The German six-pounder anti-tank gun has proved better than the British two-pounder for "blitzing" tactics, although the British 25-pounder has proved effective in defence. Another point which has emerged from the campaign is that the superiority of the R.A.F. cannot be exploited to the full because it is not effective enough against tanks.