SUPPLY DIFFICULTIES

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 84, 5 October 1940, Page 11

SUPPLY DIFFICULTIES

PROBLEM OF WATER

BRITISH HIT HARD

LONDON. October 4.

The difficulties of the North African campaign from the point of view of the Axis Powers are shown in yesterday's announcement of the further sweep of the Mediterranean by British warships and in every report from the Western Desert.

An American correspondent with the British forces in Egypt reports today that they have struck hard at the Italian water supplies, and he thinks that keeping columns supplied with water is one of the most difficult problems of attempting to cross a desert of almost unparalleled inhospitality.

The correspondent says it is believed that the constant British harassing has considerably delayed the Italian preparations. In some cases the work on supplying bases has been undone several times by bombs from the air and shells from the sea. This delay in the opening push will spare the Italian soldiers the heat of the summer sun, but it gives them the problem of meeting the cold of the desert night, which is already beginning to get acute.

The correspondent also describes the never-ceasing preparations going on on the British side to meet the Italian advance. The Australians, who are among the new units in the desert, are supervising a good deal of the fortification work, which includes devices which the correspondent is not allowed to reveal.