HITTING BACK

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 June 1942, Page 3

HITTING BACK

THE TROOPS IN TOBRUK THREE ENEMY TANKS DESTROYED. ROMMEL BRINGING UP SIEGE GUNS. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) LONDON, June 19. Further swift change in the situation in Libya is reported in a communique issued today from Cairo, stating: “The Eighth Army is now holding strong fortified positions on the Libyan frontier and in the Tobruk area. Our mobile forces operating from the south are confining the enemy columns to the Yesterday one of our columns, iterating from the south, shelled enemy troops on the El Adem aerodrome. Our troops in the Tobruk area yesterday destroyed three enemy tanks and damaged four others.” General Rommel is reported to be bringing up nine-inch siege guns round Tobruk. Fighting is going on for the possession of “Axis Strasse,” also called “Democracy Lane,” which is a semi-circular road skirting the perimeter at an average distance of six miles. Rommell is concentrating such strength against the new British positions south and west of Tobruk that the situation must .be regarded as serious. A Cairo message, which stressed the importance of the part played by the Allied airmen, said that the Allied air squadrons are breaking all records for bombing, strafing and fighting. The pilots are often flying from dawn to dusk. Heavy casualties are being inflicted on the enemy as he moves eastward, and trails of wrecked vehicles and fires are left across the desert. The aeronautical correspondent of the “Daily Mail” says that the Germans doggedly advanced in spite of our heavy air attacks till they captured -our advanced airfields. The British planes are now likely to experience difficulty in maintaining a substantial umbrella over the troops from the more distant airfields, and, it so, Rommel has achieved air superiority by the most costly but more direct method of overrunning aerodromes and reducing our air strength at the source. SUPPOSED ENEMY AIMS. The Cairo correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain says that the equipment on both sides was about evenly matched at the outset, but while the British leadership tried hard and applied many lessons from the last- campaign, it still has not attained quite the same skill in organisation as the Germans. The correspondent adds: “The situation on the Western Desert is not too good, but the Nile Valley and Middle East do not appear to be in imminent danger. It is most likely that the German aim will be to take Tobruk which is the best harbour between Benghazi and Alexandria, and build it up as a base for an autumn offensive against the Middle East. “Not all the correspondents agree that the Italians and Germans will necessarily wait for the autumn for a bold bid for the Middle East’s food and oil, opening the way for rubber an j tin from the Far East, and also cubing the Persian Gulf supply route to Russia, and threatening to place India’s wealth and labour power in an Italian-German-Japanese nutcracker.” 4 The “Daily Mail’s” military correspondent says the Germans may again employ the classical pincer in a typically bold stroke, and land men from Crete in General Ritchie’s rear. The reports that German troops are concentrating in Italy are linked up with reports that many German parachutists are at present in Greece and Crete. The Germans are reported to be concentrating gliders in Greece—some reports say 250 gliders, each with a capacity of 50 men. The Germans are practising glider flights between Greece and Crete. . “The Times” correspondent in the Western Desert says: “It seems of little use to attempt to disguise that the situation is grave. The bulk of our forces are believed to have fought their way out of El Adem, El Duda, and Sidi Rezegh, with the bravery which characterises British troops in a backs-to-the-wall situation. There are only slight natural positions between Tobruk and the Egyptian frontier, so that little can be expected except gallant delaying actions. “There is little tendency toward despair, however. We were in as bad a position, if not worse, last November, but we won through. There are many indications that the enemy has taken a bad knock, and it is unlikely that he will be able to take full advantage of his gains. As recently as Wednesday Lieutenant-General Gott, the ' British corps commander, said: ‘We have got our tails up, and soon we are going to knock those Germans silly.’ ”