LIBYAN-EGYPTIAN FRONT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 84, Issue 192, 16 August 1940, Page 5

LIBYAN-EGYPTIAN FRONT

ITALIAN CONCENTRATION FINISHED NO LARGE-SCALE OFFENSIVE FOR ANOTHER MONTH LONDON, Aug. 14. The military position on the Lib-yan-Egyptian front is that an Italian concentration of about 270,000 white troops and native levies in the Tripoli area is finished, says Reuter’s military correspondent. The weather makes an offensive action on a large scale unlikely for another month. This period is not so valuable to General Sir Archibald Wavell, Commander-in-Chief in the Middle East, as might be supposed because he must use the Cape route for reinforcements and supplies from Britain, although both are readily available from India with which communication is not interrupted. A Cairo message says that thousands of young Bedouins are offering their services to the British to fight against the Italians in the western desert. Many chiefs who fled from Italian rule in Libya have agreed to unite under the leadership of Daved Idriss Elsennuissi. A Cairo communique states that in the Western Desert patrol encounters 35 miles inside Italian territory resulted in the withdrawal of lhe enemy patrol. Otherwise all is quiet. In the Sudan after a short engagement in the Gallabat area, the enemy made a hasty withdrawal behind his defences, losing one officer and 32 other ranks. Oiir casualties were six.