EIGHTH ARMY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 June 1942, Page 3

EIGHTH ARMY

FIGHTING BACK HARD NEW AND WELL-CHOSEN POSITIONS. POSITION STILL SERIOUS. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) CAIRO, June 16. The whole desert front is in a state of flux as wave after wave of German tanks are thrown against the British armoured units barring Rommel’s path to Tobruk and the sea. The situation remains serious, but the Eighth Army is fighting back hard from its new, well-cho-sen positions. There were heavy British tank losses when our armoured forces attacked between El Adem and Knightsbridge and came up against a tremendously powerful concentration of concealed enemy anti-tank guns. Reuter’s special correspondent states that our tanks had massed, apparently seeking to cut through the 21st and 15th German Armoured Divisions, which were in the p'rocess of joining when the anti-tank guns opened up. Our tank commanders strove heroically to extricate the squadrons from the hellish fire, but the slow-moving tanks, half-blinded by the swirling dust, were at a disadvantage. “The situation at the moment is undoubtedly serious, if not critical,” says the “Daily Mail’s” correspondent. He adds, “Tobruk is now threatened far more directly than it has ever been in this campaign.”