BEYOND SOLLUM

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24595, 1 May 1941, Page 7

BEYOND SOLLUM

GERMANS AND ITALIANS ADVANCE NOW CHECKED CALM OPTIMISM IN CAIRO LONDON, Apl. 29. The Germans and Italians have reached a point five miles eastward from Solium, where the advance was halted, says the Military Spokesman in Cairo. He added that it was difficult to say whether the halt was due to our patrols' continued harassing action, the air bombing, supply problems, or to sandstorms, but it was probably a combination of all these factors. The enemy troops are now spread out in a long straggling line from Tripoli to Solium, with minor groups at Bardia and Tobruk. The Germans particularly are feeling the vicissitudes of desert warfare. The situation in Libya is generally viewed in military circles in Cairo with calm optimism. The Italians, since the fall of Dessie, are bolting in all directions in Abyssinia, with opposition from patriots cropping up in all kinds of unexpected places. About half the Dessie garrison escaped. Surveying the latest developments in the Libyan situation, it is important to bear in mind that Tobruk is not in any way a beleagured fortress. General Waveil's Tactics Authoritative circles point out that General Wavell deliberately left troops in Tobruk to be a thorn in the side of the enemy advance towards Egypt.

Sea communications are still open, and there is not even complete encirclement by the enemy on the land side. The situation is quite different from that at Bardia when the British invested it and then took it. The Australian raids from Tobruk have been so harassing that some of the enemy are preparing positions in the neighbourhood. ATTACK ON TROOP-CARRIERS SURPRISE FOR THE ENEMY (Rec. 8 •p.m.) RUGBY, ApJ. 29. Getails of an announcement appearing in an R.A.F. Middle East communique relating to the destruction of a number of trocp-carrying German planes, are given by a Canadian captain of an R.A.F. reconnaissance aircraft which carried out the attack. "We had completed a ' recko,' and were coming bark over Benina." he said, " when we were confronted by the sight of what looked like 100 Ju 52's lined up wing tip to wing tip. It was too good to miss, but it was not our job to attack, so I called up the crew and asked what they thought about it. ' Let's wreck 'em!' they said. So from about two milet and a-half up in the air I pointed the nose of the plane down into a steep dive. "It looked as if the enemy planes had just landed, for there were groups of soldiers gathered about on the,landing ground. We gave them all we had, and one of the aircraft burst into flames immediately and smoke poured from others. The soldiers were too startled apparently to raise their rifles, and they just closed up like penknives and toppled to the ground."