DESERT FIGHTING

New Zealand Herald, Volume 78, Issue 24147, 13 December 1941, Page 11

DESERT FIGHTING

NO BEST FOE ENEMY MANY BRITISH ATTACKS ARMOURED UNITS IN ACTION (Reed. 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 12 "Throughout the day our mobile forces continued successfully to attack the enemy, whose general trend of movement is north-west and west from El Adem," states a communique issued by headquarters in Cairo yesterday. "A number of engagements occurred, but owing to the wide area covered and the difficulties of communications detailed reports have not yet been received. "Enemy troops and transport sheltering behind defences immediately west of El Adem were attacked by British armoured units, while further west British and South African mobile columns pressed the enemy back all day in a north-westerly direction. "Small pockets of enemy infantry and armoured cars left in the area north of Birhakein are being dealt with. In the late afternoon our armoured forces attacked and drove off a number of German tanks which were endeavouring to interfere with operations being carried out west of El Adem by Sikhs, Punjabi and Royal Sussex Regiments.

Enemy Transport Shelled

"Some miles south-west of Acroma British armoured units shelled a concentration of enemy motor transport, burning some and damaging others. "At Tobruk itself Polish units, maintaining pressure on the enemy, captured two posts in the western defences. Enemy air action against Tobruk was on a somewhat increased scale, but was ineffective. "Further east, South African troops continued to clear up areas north of Trigh-Capuzzo, where a few enemy stragglers are still being captured. New Zealanders are also engaged in mopping up operations in areas immediately east of Tobruk. In the frontier area our artillery is persistently harassing enemy detachments isolated in various defended localities. Our ground troops shot down a Messerschmitt 110." t Destruction of Tanks

Thirty-eight German tanks have been located and destroyed in an enemy workshop by British patrols cleaning up in the coastal area in Libya. This, states an authoritative London quarter, is in addition to the 27-German tanks reported to have been destroyed yesterday. Although there is 110 official estimate of the number of German tanks destroyed in the Libyan battle or the numbers remaining, it is considered that the second phase of the battle which was to deal with the enemy armoured forces is now virtually completed. It is believed that each of the two German armoured divisions which have been operating in this campaign included 135 tanks.

EIGHTH ARMY LEADER KEY POSITION AT AGE OF 44 Only 44 years of age, Major-General Neil Methuen Ritchie, who has been appointed commander of the Eighth Army, hae risen from the rank of lieutenant-colonel since the beginning of the war. Educated at Sandhurst, he entered the Black Watch in 1914 and saw service in France, Mesopotamia and Palestine, where he won the D.S.O. and M.C.

Promoted captain in 1917, he became a major in 1933, lieutenant-colonel in 1938, and colonel, and subsequently brigadier, in 1939. He served as general staff officer, second grade, in the Northern Command, India, from 1933 to 1937, and in Palestine in 1938-39, being mentioned in despatches. After the outbreak of war he was attached to the General Staff.