TEMPORARY LULL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24783, 6 December 1941, Page 9

TEMPORARY LULL

THE LIBYAN FRONTS BITTER BATTLES AHEAD NEW ZEALANDERS KEEN (Rec. 11p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 4. Patrols and flying columns are ranging th« Libyan battlefield in spite of the worst possible weather, but the main forces continue the recondi- . tioning of the fighting vehicles, the strengthening of communications, and the regrouping of units which at any moment are likely to be re-engaged in bitter battles. A Cairo message says General Cunningham's t : men are eagerly a waiting another chance to get to grips with the Germans. The New Zealanders and South Africans are particularly keen for a chance of paying off old scores. The New Zealanders have already hit General Rommel's forces extremely heavy blows, and it is now revealed .that the Germans broke through the Tobruk corridor only after a terrific battle in which the New Zealanders inflicted losses that seriously impaired the Germans' effective strength. Driving rain continues on the coast and sand storms inland. The Germans appear determined to hold the line from Tobruk to Bir-el-Gobi, along which they are digging anti-tank obstacles, gun positions and trenches, says Reuters correspondent with the advanced Royal Air Force headquarters. The aim of the Germans is to screen Tobruk by a series of defence works curving north-east from El Adem through Sidi Rezegh. General Rommel, with his positional troops holding these, lines, obviously hopes to use his remaining tanks as a highly mobile striking force to divert our main attack.

"Scores of men who were reported missing are every day reaching our lines," says the Daily Express correspondent with the Eighth Army. "Some walk and some ride in Italian and German vehicles which they find stranded and repair.. Some have even ridden camels. The movement has become so general during the last few days that a staff said to-day that our casualties. would probably be one-third less than originally thought. Units which were previously written off were being regrouped and re-formed in the south. .

Since the beginning of the fighting in Libya, 27 fighter aircraftmen of the South African Air Force who had failed to return from, operations have since reported to their squadrons. Some have walked in, others have flown in, while the majority travelled: back in transport provided by .the army.' ■ •.**"• »''

A pilot officer of the Royal Air Force returned on Wednesday after being missing for two days. He brought his Tomahawk home with him. It was towed across the desert for 50 miles by an armoured car belonging to the South African Brigade. * .

"General Rommel is massing his panzers and infantry south-east of Tobruk, but ..the southern desert is ours, and everywhere field workshops are at full blast recovering and repairing guns;, tanks,- and equipment," says the Daily Express correspondent with the Eighth Army. " The forges in smithies in the front line are mending tank tracks and reconditioning tanks and other vehicles by ' cannibalisation' —making Up new vehicles from several damaged vehicles. Huge crane lorries behind the lines sweep across the desert to disabled tanks, let down a ramp, pull <tanks, on, and dash off to the repair bases. One section recovered seven tanks one morning. Scout cars locate others, which can be snatched at night from under the noses of the Germans."

battle, while operations proceeded simultaneously for the reduction of the Bafdia-Sidi Omar line. Meanwhile, the Tobruk garrison, bursting south-eastwards through the invading lines, created a salient which temporarily formed a junction with the British forces from the east and south. The junction was hot .consolidated, and for the moment there appears to be a gap between the Tobruk salient and pur forces to the south. The picture emerging at the end of a fortnight's operations, however,.is this: Most of the strong enemy posts between Solium and Sidi Omar have been reduced, and the remaining coastal defences are isolated. The enemy has lost his advanced supply bases. The great bulk of the parallelogram is clear of the enemy, and •in the north-west corner there remain only fragments of the three enemy armoured divisions. , The operations are far from having reached a conclusion. We have still to deal with substantial enemy forces south-west and west of Tobruk, and the remnants of the armoured divisions may.; still give trouble. Finally, the local air support ,which the R.A.F. has achieved augurs well for the future; The Gairo correspondent of the Daily Telegraph says the British tank units have waged two battles daily for 11 days', against a determined enemy. We are fighting a German corps d'elite, which has never considered retreat or surrender, but which will damage us as much as it can as long as it has a kick left. The British have the advantage of considerable new units, but they are at a disadvantage because a majority of the German tanks are bigger. The German weight in ; this campaign has out-countered 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, though the British 25-pounder has proved effective in defence. Another point which has emerged from the campaign is the superiority of the it.A.F. This cannot be exploited to the full because it is not effective enough against tanks. ' , '■

The military correspondent of the Daily Express says Ordnance Corps members in field lorries are constantly in action with the tanks, repairing them under heavy fire. The Ordnance Corps personnel, indeed, has often had to drop tools and take up rifles and anti-tank guns to beat off attacks. They have taken, spare engines to battle and changed damaged engines while fighting went on around them. Ordnance field lorries are amazingly packed with repair shops capable of handling, ailbut major repairs. Rain has hampered the operations in Libya during the past 24 hours. British armoured columns are harassing the enemy, who apparently is using the Trigh-Capuzzo road from west to east. Looking back, it seems that General Sir Claude Auchinleck probably withheld a trifle too long some of his numerous reserves. It probably resulted from faulty intelligence concerning General Rommel's tank strength, which most of the commentators in London tended to disparage, as well as the German commander himself. It is now being realised that we are up against a first-rate soldier and still formidable armoured strength. Generals Auchinleck and Sir Alan Cunningham made the campaign difficult . for General' Rommel early because of their swift blows. He replied just as swiftly, and because he blotted the "original British plan he can be said to be leading on points. That does not say that the British plan will fail, but it will not be helped by belittling and underestimating the enemy.

Meanwhile the lull in the fighting while the opposing forces refit and regroup provides an occasion for a short review of the operations which began a fortnight ago. These have taken place mainly in a parallelogram bounded on the north by the TobrukBardia road, on the south by El Ad track, running from Bir-el-Gobi in the west, due south of Tobruk, to Sidi Omar, in the desert some 40 miles south of Bardia. Within this parallelogram were General Rommel's two armoured divisions, while just outside it to the west beyond the Tobruk-El Gobi road lay an Italian armoured division. On the Bardia side of Omar the enemy had a series of strongly fortified infantry posts. Our attack was launched with a twofold objective. We had to overcome the Bardia-Sidi Omar line, but this would have been a difficult operation as long as the enemy's armoured forces were intact. Accordingly it was essential to compel those forces to give battle. Therefore the role assigned to our armoured forces was. to sweep westwards south of Sidi Omar along the El' Ad -.track, then bend north towards Tobruk between the two German armoured divisions and the Italian armoured division. The task of the infantry was in part to outflank and roll up the BardiaSidi Omar line and in part to follow up our armoured forces roughly along the two northern and southern sides of the parallelogram. The result was that the German divisions, reinforced by the Italian division from west of the Tobruk-El Gobi track, were compelled to give; battle in the desert south-west of Tobruk. During engagements around El.'Duda and Sidi Rezegh British and Imperial infantry and supporting arms, advancing along the north and south sides of the parallelogram, joined in the main