THE BATTLE RAGES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 05, Issue 75, 8 July 1942, Page 4

THE BATTLE RAGES

NOR night or day can serve to make any pause in the great and vital battle for Egypt which is now taking place some seventy miles west of Alexandria. The greatest clash of armed forces in the whole of the three year Libyan campaign is new swaying on the escarpment south of El Alajnein. The strain of the conflict is telling on both sides but ono distinct advantage with the British is the shortened supply routes direct from Alexandria and Cairo. Rommel on the other hand must needs draw his by weary overland trek from Benghazi, and even possibly from Tripoli- a thousand miles away. German captives axe reported to be "tired and dispirited." When we have sifted the natural propaganda exploitation from the above message, we can rest fully assured that the abnormally long lines of supply must give the Nazi commander many a moment of anxious thought, and. that inefficient food and munition services must have a most disheartening effect upon the invading army. Supply difficulties would seem to be the price which either side must be prepared to pay for taking the initiative in Libya. Rommel, we realise is for the first time, contending with the difficulties which cramped the style of Wavell, Cunningham, Auchinlech and Ritchie, in their successive thrusts forward through II Duce s African Empire. The weaknesses of extended supply must now becoming very obvious to the German Commander—and though this desperate fact much also be realised by the rank and file of his army it cannot be anticipated that they will fight any the less fiercely until such time as a complete breakdown occurs and complete disorganisation takes place. The initial force of the first great thrust through the Egyptian borderlands has spent itself. For a week now the Nazi invasion has been' arrested by the gallant and determined Bth Army. Though it would still be too early to say that the threat to Egypt has been temporary removed, it is nevertheless obvious that the momentum of the German advance has been slowed down to a complete halt, and that there are definite signs of weakening in the boldness and energy that characterised the first swift onslaught and which play havoc with our forces at Bir Hakeim, Knightsbridge and later at Tobruk.