VICTORY ALMOST IN SIGHT

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 37, 7 November 1942, Page 7

VICTORY ALMOST IN SIGHT

Montgomery’s Message ENEMY BEING WORN DOWN (British Official Wireless and Press Assn.) (Received November 6, 7.30 p.m.) RUGBY, November 5. “The present battle has now lasted 12 days, during which our forces have fought so magnificently that the enemy is being worn down,”, said the commander of the Eighth Army, Lieutenant-General B. L. Montgomery, in an order to the troops issued this morning. “The enemy has just reached breaking point and is trying to get his army away. The Allied ajr force is taking toll of his columns moving west on the main coast road. “The enemy is in our power . and is just about to crack. I call on all troops to keep up the pressure and not relax a moment. Complete victory is almost in sight. “On your behalf I have sent a separate message to the R.A.F. thanking them for 'their quite magnificent support.” Rommel is desperately trying to prevent the Eighth Army overrunning the beaten Axis armies, says Reuter’s military correspondent. His screen of anti-tank guns is attempting to save what it can from the wreckage, but the screen is no protection for the “soft” transport, which our bombers continue to attack.

The fact that some positions in the south are still holding out is not surprising. The collapse was so sudden that it was obviously impossible to inform all the Axis sectors, much less instruct them how to act. General Montgomery is following up the Axis forces with the same methodical persistence with which he drove them from their positions. He is clearly not being distracted to wipe out odd groups of roving tanks. Enemy Kept Guessing. Telling how we forced the victory, the British United Press correspondent in Cairo states: “The enemy was always kept guessing. It now seems incredible that the enemy should have mistaken the opening battles as merely localized attacks, nut that apparently is what happened. The first phase of the offensive was a thrust from the extreme northern sector which trapped the enemy’s forces in a pocket. , . . "After guessing wrongly on this phase, the Axis commanders, hoping to guard against repeating their error, kept their forces strung out along the line, apparently expecting action in the south after the initial attack in the north. General Montgomery again fooled- them; he continued his thrust in the north. “When the Axis command realized what had happened it was too late to concentrate the strung-out forces for any kind of counter-blow,” the correspondent continues. "The euemy found himself unable to contain our forces, and realized that the huge coastal salient we had forced had exposed his southern flank, with hardly auy fighting. He suddenly withdrew from his strong positions in the south, such as at Himeimat. This was a prelude to full retreat.” Reuter’s Cairo correspondent says that the Eighth .Army achieved a complete surprise in its initial attack. Many of the Axis front line positions were not even manned. Though the enemy had been expecting attack for some time, he was not expecting it either when or where it came.

Endless Kain of Shells. The British United Press correspondent says: “We have left the enemy’s solid defences far behind. This advance came after the fiercest tank and infantry bat-