FORCES ADVANCE FROM TOBRUK

Southland Times, Issue 24601, 25 November 1941, Page 5

FORCES ADVANCE FROM TOBRUK

WITHIN TWO MILES OF BRITISH TROOPS

(Rec. 8.10 p.m.) LONDON, Nov. 24. Advance forces from Tobruk are now within two miles of our armoured divisions proceeding northward, a high British officer told the Exchange Telegraph Agency’s correspondent at desert headquarters. German tanks which assembled near El Adem on Saturday night led a fierce and powerful attack on Sunday in an attempt to recapture Sidi Rezegh. A British armoured brigade and _ a support group, including a famous line regiment, held their ground in a battle lasting an hour. British armoured forces with South Africans in support gained new positions to cut off a German retreat and artillery is already in position to cover the remaining gap. Mass dog-fights between Tomahawks and Messerschmitts on Sunday resulted in the destruction of nine Messerschmitts. Five Tomahaks of 21 have not returned to their base, but they may have landed for refuelling at desert landing grounds. The Axis is bringing up by planes and the roads anti-tank guns, machineguns and ammunition from rear bases, says the British United Press correspondent at desert headquarters. Pilots already report an increase in anti-air-craft fire. INDIANS CAPTURE ITALIANS British headquarters late last night said the situation was good. An Indian division captured 8000 Italians _of the 15,000 Axis prisoners with considerable equipment in the Sidi Omar area, but it is encountering fierce resistance four and a-half miles west of Sidi Omar. Stiff resistance is expected west of Tobruk, where the Italians have built heavy fortifications and laid vast minefields. An examination of the German prisoners indicates the drain on Germany’s man power, says the correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain at desert headquarters. One group of prisoners comprised old reservists due for final mobilization last year. Another group which recently arrived in Libya included several just released from hospital. Some were still wearing bandages on unhealed wounds. The enemy forces appear to have been hemmed in a zone bounded by Tobruk, Bir el Gobi and the Egyptian frontier. In this zone they seem to have been split up into a number of groups of which four may, it seems, be defined as follows:—

One group has been cut off from its base in the Sollum-Halfaya area and can only escape either by breaking through or by defeating the British forces at present containing it. Another group has been isolated near Gambut.

A third group is in the Bir el Gobi area.

The fourth group is between Bardia and Sidi Rezegh. Various estimates of enemy tank losses have been given in London, but it is only possible to follow the Cairo statements which, in announcing the destruction of 130 tanks, comments that this figure is half the total of General Rommel’s tank force. BATTLE AT SIDI REZEGH All the Axis armoured divisions, including the Italian division, are now believed to have been thrown into the battle. The Germans in the absence of reserves appear to be staking everything on beating the British at Sidi Rezegh and then proceeding westward to new positions. But the view is strongly held in military circles in Cairo that General Cunningham and his men are slowly, but surely, winning. This at the moment focuses attention on Sidi Rezegh and on the complementary infantry engagement which has begun in the region south of Tobruk, but it is pointed out that even the stiffest German resistance here would not preclude progress by other British forces elsewhere in Libya and that the drives which hitherto have merely been mentioned in the communiques may possibly produce important results at any moment. The New Zealanders encircled Fort the first of the battle after

crossing the frontier immediately south of Fort Capuzzo, says The Times Cairo correspondent. Indian troops on the coastal end of the line simultaneously crossed the frontier and got behind the enemy’s forts north of Capuzzo. There was apparently not much left behind in Solium except a fair .amount of supplies which were of no use to the Germans because they were unable to get them when they wanted them. Major-General P. J. Mackesy, writing in The Daily Telegraph, says that the New Zealanders’ capture of Fort Capuzzo constitutes a great feat of arms involving complete encirclement of this strongpoint