EIGHTH ARMY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 November 1942, Page 3

EIGHTH ARMY

ADVANCING & CLEARING BATTLE AREA PRISONERS STILL BEING BROUGHT IN. SLIGHT RESISTANCE TO AIR FORCES. LONDON, November 10. In Egypt the advance of the Eighth Army is continuing steadily in spite of bad weather. Some rearguard actions are being fought around Solium and Sidi Barrani, a Cairo Headquarters communique states. The enemy forces thus engaged are most of them comparatively small groups which have been unable to get away or have been left behind as suicide squads. Many of the prisoners now being taken are in wretched condition, inadequately clothed against the bitter desert nights. Clearance of the battle area continues. Prisoners are still being brought in, and much enemy equipment collected. Aerial bombing and strafing operations continue against slight resistance. Bombers attacked the Italian island of Sardinia. AMERICANS IN EGYPT UNDER BRITISH COMMAND. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, November 9. General Andrews, the new United States commander in the Middle East, who reached Cairo nearly a week ago, told correspondents that the American and Canadian forces in the Middle East were under the strategic direction of the British commander-in-chief, and that there was no relationship between his command and General Eisenhower’s. He added, however, that when the two forces linked up there would possibly be some tie-up. General Andrews’s command embraces Iran, Iraq and Eritrea. LIMITED ADMISSIONS MADE BY THE GERMANS. TALK OF RE-ESTABLISHING EQUILIBRIUM. LONDON, November 9. The German news agency says that the British are maintaining heavy pressure against the Italians and Germans in northern Egypt. The British are concentrating against the main coastal road, also the ralway. They have thrown in many tanks and considerable infantry after much artillery preparation. Dietmar, broadcasting on the Berlin radio, declared that the British, favoured by excellent roads and railways in the Lower Nile, had succeeded at present in establishing numerical and also material superiority over the Axis forces. The German High Command statement says that the desert’s wide spaces and distances recently created a difficult supply problem for the Axis forces. These spaces and distances might soon prove a chain on the enemy’s legs. step we make westward is helping to re-establish equilibrium in the Af'rcan war theatre whch has been temporarily disturbed.” The Berlin radio said that the Egyptan rainy season had begun, considerably facilitating German rearguard actions. The British overtaking manoeuvre had become practically impossible and torrential rain precluded air activity. The Associated Press of America commented that the broadcast sounded more hopeful than convincing because it implied an admission that Rommel is running. ELECTRICAL STORES ABANDONED BY ENEMY IN MERSA MATRUH. MORE DETAILS OF ENEMY ROUT. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10 a.m.) RUGBY, November 10. “The Buffs were the first to enter Mersa Matruh at dawn on Monday,” says a correspondent with the Eighth Army. “Before leaving the town the Germans set fire to all supplies, but left behind an important stock of electrical implements. Mersa Matruh evidently had been used as a main forward electricity station. When our tanks arrived they simply passed through a devastated town. Hardly a house is left standing after the heavy bombing and shelling. Along the road out of Mersa Matruh one saw the work done by our bombers. Every few yards were burnt vchciles of all kinds—lorries, petrol tankers, gun-carriers, guns and tanks. In Mersa Matruh a large tanker was lying on its side, with a twenty-foot hole under the waterline, while other ships had been sunk and a small dock hangar was a mass of debris. Nothing worth destroying seemed to have escaped the reach of our bombers and gunners. But the Germans are still fighting in their hurried retreat. We shall probably have to clear many minefields and fight some rearguards before having a last crack at the Afrika Korps. They certainly have quite a few guns left, but not many tanks. We lost quite a lot of tanks, especially in the minefields in front of El Alamein, but we have now recovered a very large proportion of them.” No details are yet available of the numbers of the Afrika Korps who escaped from the Egyptian battlefield. So far, it is calculated, the enemy retreat has covered quite 250 miles in six days. Though the retreat resembled a rout there still have to be taken into account the garrisons of enemy bases in the back areas. These troops at least are fresh and may have a stabilising influence on the retreating troops, whose rearguards have been greatly handicapped by the lack of vital air support. There is no news yet about the Italian troops occupying the Siwa oasis, about 200 miles south of Solium.