JARABUB FORT

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 62, Issue 4423, 9 May 1941, Page 6

JARABUB FORT

BOREDOM BRINGS “VICTORIES.” During the siege, the Italians in i Jarabub often fired off their ammunition to relieve the boredom, then announced to Rome that they had beaten off an attack, says the Cairo correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph.” In Italy the “failure” of the British to capture the place was hailed as an epic feat of resistance against odds. The correspondent emphasises that no attack was made on Jarabub before the operation which resulted in its capture. The Imperial troops just waited for the surrender of the hungry Italians, who ate every donkey and camel in Jarabub. The Italians realised that General Wavell djd not want to damage the Senussi holy places; so they put their headquarters in a mosque, parked their motor transport all round it and camped among the shrines. Many Italians, says the correspondent, had deserted, knowing they only had to walk out to the British lines to get a square meal. The Italian commander, Colonel Costiana, a strict disciplinarian, kept the remainder of the garrison (800) under control by his fierce determination. I After a siege that lasted 15 weeks, Jarabub, which is 200 miles south of , Solium (Lybia), fell to Australian I and British troops.