INDIAN TROOPS ENTER AUGILA

Southland Times, Issue 24602, 26 November 1941, Page 5

INDIAN TROOPS ENTER AUGILA

DIVISION 200 MILES FROM BENGHAZI FIERCE TANK BATTLE AT SIM RESEGH NEW ZEALAND TROOPS ADVANCE (United Press Association—Telegraph Copyright) (Rec. 1.25 a.m.) LONDON, November 25. The sth Division of the Indian Army has captured Augila, 200 miles south-east of Benghazi in the depths of the Libyan Desert. This division entered Libya at the Jarabub oasis, on the extreme left of Lieutenant-General Sir Alan Cunningham’s Sth Army. It may be the division mentioned in an Italian communique which drove across the desert and attacked and overpowered an advanced Italian garrison north of the Gailo oasis. Intense fighting between British and German armoured forces is still going on at Sidi Resegh, according to a communique just issued in Cairo, and reinforcements which have reached the area have been involved. South African troops were heavily attacked by German motorborne troops. The South Africans, although heavily outnumbered, fought magnificently until they were reinforced by a British armoured column, which drove off the enemy with heavy loss. The New Zealand troops who captured Gambut, have continued their advance, aided by tank forces. Tank casualties have been heavy on both sides at Sidi Resegh, but it is impossible yet to estimate the numbers. The forces which sallied out from Tobruk have consolidated their newly-won ground. They have taken 2000 prisoners, half of whom are Germans. The communique praises the co-operation of the Royal Air Force and the Navy and the work of the British, New Zealand and and South African motorized infantry, who have played such a big part in the fighting at Sidi Resegh, where General Erwin Rommel’s troops are trying to prevent the closing of the gap between the troops advancing from Tobruk and General Cunningham’s forces coming from the south. It is now revealed that before the offensive began the Royal Navy withdrew the whole of the Australian 9th Division from Tobruk and replaced it with fresh British and Australian troops. This operation occupied four months.