AXIS TANK LOSSES

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 291, 7 September 1942, Page 5

AXIS TANK LOSSES

Eighth Army Attack In Central Sector

NEW ZEALANDERS IN VAN

(By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.)

(Received September 6, 9.45 p.m.) LONDON, September 5. The Cairo correspondent of the British United Press says that the German tank losses in last week’s fighting can be described as “greater than we dreamed.” The enemy’s heaviest casualties were inflicted on September 2 and 3, when Allied artillery fire was on a scale unprecedented in desert warfare. “During the night of September 3 our troops in the central sector attacked enemy positions to the south-west and gained their objectives,” a Cairo communique states. “In the northern sector our patrols were active. The enemy bombed and machinegunned one of our defended areas yesterday. “Three enemy counter-attacks with infantry and armour against the positions gained by us on the previous night in the central sector were driven off by troops and intense artillery fire. Enemy infantry losses were heavy. “Further south in the El Himeimat area, our armoured and mobile forces and artillery continued pressure on the main enemy concentrations, which again moved slightly to the west, A number of abandoned enemy tanks were destroyed.”

Fighting in Egypt today continued to move westward, and it has been ascertained that the enemy is withdrawing portion of the material which he had massed in the southern sector.

Cairo dispatches (says British Oflicial Wireless) indicate that the enemy is trying to assert that his attack in the Western Desert was nothing more than a reconnaissance in force. The enemy was thrown back after five days of severe fighting. He failed to enter our main defence position anywhere, in spite of making every effort to do so., The British losses were comparative-, ly light, but enemy losses of men and material were severe.

The enemy’s losses in tanks and motor transport as a result of our bombardments were given an important fillip last night when R.A.F. and African medium bombers supported by nav&l planes, dealt a series of devastating blows on enemy concentrations. One concentration was described as a “shambles.” A large area was cover.ed with burning and wrecked vehicles and the enemy frantically dispersed the remainder. Captured material, including guns, tanks and anti-tank weapons is piling up within the Allied lines. New Zealanders’ Powerful Raid.

The New Zealanders, supported by British tanks and armoured cars, made an attack from the central sector on Thursday night. Fairly heavy fighting continued into the following day, when three counter-attacks failed to dislodge the New Zealanders from their newlywon positions. The correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain says that the New Zealanders’ attack was a powerful raid. They took a number of prisoners, half of whom were Italians and half members of the German 90th Light Infantry, which is the elite fighting unit.

The formation moved eastward at the start of the attack with the apparent Intention of cutting through the New Zealanders and joining up with the German tanks further south. The tanks apparently intended to aid this movement by moving in a northward direction behind the New Zealanders’ positions, but the 90th failed to get through the New Zealanders. The Australians on the same night continued their raids in the coastal region, stealing up on an Axis post armed with bayonets, tommy-guns and mortars. Prisoners admit that this type of raid terrifies .Germans and Italians alike. The New Zealanders’ operation is described as the first major infantry clash on the El Alainein front. The New Zealanders at present holding the positions are seriously threatening enemy concentrations. The Germans strove desperately to regain the captured ground. They first heavily attacked from the west, but were thrown back by a terrific artillery barrage. The second and third attacks, which were even more intense, came from the south and southwest. The Germans’ ranks were repeatedly thinned out by heavy artillery fire, but reinforcements were brought up. The Germans who wanted to penetrate the barrage went down like-wheat before a scythe under the fire of the New Zealand machinegunners. The New Zealanders then charged with the bayonet on the remnants of the Germans who finally fell back after the fiercest hand-to-hand fighting. The battlefield was strewn with German dead and wounded. The British United Press correspondent in the Western Desert said yesterday that Rommel was reforming his tanks just beyond tho battle area and had also thrown a wall of anti-tank guns round his motor transport. Nevertheless, our guns and planes were ceaselessly hammering them.

A Correspondent said yesterday that it would be premature to jump to the conclusion that the enemy’s backward move on Thursday was a retreat, but the enemy, he said, had been hit and hit hard by British troops, armour, and guns. When the full story came to be told it. would bo one of hard, continuous, and successful fighting. Describing the fighting in the air, he said our fighters were maintaining the tradition they established so successfully in May nnd June—that not one bomber is to bo shot down by enemy 'fighters.