FIERCE STRUGGLE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 June 1942, Page 3

FIERCE STRUGGLE

FOLLOWING ON THE LOSS OF BIR HACHEIM ENEMY THRUST FORESTALLED & BROKEN. IN HARD & HEAVY FIGHTING. (British Ofl'icial Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10 a.m.) RUGBY, June 12. The prolonged resistance at Bir Hacheim has caused the enemy heavy losses in rnen and equipment and drew off considerable Axis forces, which otherwise would have been employed elsewhere. It is also pointed out that although the Axis supply position will be eased by the capture of Bir Hacheim, the enemy forces are by no means safe from embarassment on this score, as their supply routes are continually harassed by British armoured forces and minefields. The British position has been eased by the removal of the necessity to talite supplies, including water, to Bir Hacheim. The tremendous attempts ot the enemy to assault Bir Hacheim are regarded in London as evidence of an awkward situation created for the Axis forces when they failed to take Tobruk. A well-informed commentator states that the consolidation of the Cauldron area has placed the Germans in a favourable position to make a supreme effort to reach Tobruk, but that General Ritchie forestalled the attack with a frontal assault. British and Indian forces advanced on German strongpoints at the moment when the enemy was preparing to attack and all accounts agree that the clash which followed exceeded in intensity anything previously known. The losses on both sides were heavy, but the British pressed the Germans so hard that they had to bring up the 21st Panzer. Division from reserve. Even after this enemy

reinforcement, the British were able to force the panzer column off its course by a brilliant and gallant action, which eventually compelled the Germans to withdraw with heavy losses. The British troops demonstrated their superiority which augurs well for the future.