HISTORY-MAKING IN LIBYA

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 189, 5 December 1941, Page 4

HISTORY-MAKING IN LIBYA

'BITTER fighting* is still proceeding- round the Sidi Rezegh area.' This brief communique has figured- in broadcast news from Daventry for the past five days. In this battle New Zealand troops are bearing the brunt of the combined armoured Nazi attack, in the frantic last-minute attempt of Rommel to break the new land link with the garrison of Tobruk. Sidi Rezegh is therefore well to the fore in the Dominion. The latest news speaks of the recapture of the town (merely a single-streeted desert village) by the German forces and the driving of a 'dent' in the New Zealand, line. This desperate action possibly accounted for the news of the capture of Brigadiers Hargest and Miles. Meanwhile the struggle continues unabated, the reinforcements from the desert base camps nearly three hundred miles away arriving daily to assist forward the largest scale action in North Africa of the war. The fighting continues to be confused, and the recent reports of 'Kiwis' riding in captured German lorries and of Nazi troops utilising British vehicles is typical of the tangled nature of the widespread combat. The most heartening news is undisputedly the unfailing and devastating work of the Royal Air Force, which is wreaking havoc on the enemy supply lines and reinforcements coming up in the rear. The va.unted 'panzas' are thus undergoing the test of their short lifetime, though they are standing up bravely to the punishment of the modern British war machine . All eyes are on Libya, for out of the chaotic battle now raging there will emerge the new r trend of events which will dictate the future of the war and ind.eed —of the world. With our prayers to-ctey, our hearts go out to those brave lads from these shores who are so gallantly standing the brunt of the second Libyan, campaign and winning fresh laurels to those already won on Gallipoli, in France, in Greece; and in Crete.