NAZI ADVANCE IN LIBYA

Southland Times, Issue 24421, 29 April 1941, Page 5

NAZI ADVANCE IN LIBYA

BRITISH TAKEN BY SURPRISE LARGE IMPERIAL ARMIES ASSEMBLED (8.0.W.) RUGBY, April 27. In his speech Mr Churchill discussed the position in Libya. “While grievous events were taking place in the Balkan Peninsula and in Greece our forces in Libya sustained a vexatious and damaging defeat,” he said. “The Germans advanced sooner and in greater numbers than we or our generals expected. Tire bulk of our armoured troops which had played such a decisive part in beating the Italians had had to be refitted and the single armoured brigade which had been judged sufficient to hold the frontier until about the middle of May was worsted. Its vehicles were largely destroyed by a somewhat stronger German force. “Our division has fallen back upon the very large Imperial armies that have been assembled and can be nourished and maintained in the fertile delta of the Nile. The fortress of Tobruk, which flanks any German advance on Egypt, we hold strongly. There we have repulsed man I '' attacks, causing the enemy immense losses and taking many prisoners. That is how the matter stands in Libya and on the Egyptian front. FIERCIER FIGHTING EXPECTED “We must now expect the war in the Mediterranean, on the sea and, above all, in the air, to become very fierce, varied and widespread. We have cleaned the Italians out of Cyrenaica and it now lies with us to purge the province of Germans. That will be a harder task, and we cannot expect to do it at once. You know that I never try to make out that defeats are victories. I have never underrated the Gerlnan as a warrior.”

Recalling that he warned the nation a month ago that misfortunes must be expected, Mr Churchill said the only thing certain about war was that it is full of disappointments and mistakes, and he said it remained to be seen whether the Germans’ recent expeditions into the Balkans and Africa should prove mistakes. “However, I would be very sorry to see the task of the combatants in the Middle East exchanged and for General Wavell’s armies to be in the position of the German invaders,” he said.