ROMMEL WILL TRY AGAIN

Evening Star, Issue 24293, 7 September 1942, Page 3

ROMMEL WILL TRY AGAIN

FIRST DRIVE WAS MEANT TO REASH CAIRO (Rec. 11.50 a.m.) LONDON, September 6. There is no doubt that Rommel last week intended to smash tho Eighth Army and sweep through Egypt, says the Cairo correspondent of the British United Press. German prisoners captured in the central sector stated that just before the offensive Rommel visited the front line and told the officers and men: “Now, boys, we are off to Cairo.” . ' Rommel was given a bloody nose, but it is presumed here, says the correspondent, that he will try again as soon as he has had a breather and has regrouped. The first phase of the battle is a complete endorsement of the wisdom of Mr Churchill’s purge of the Desert Command by giving it new leaders. The Eighth Army is reinvigorated in spirit. General Montgomery has wisely decided against over-optimism. "Wo have reason to-day, however, to congratulate ourselves and give praise to all arms and all ranks. Instead of being • m Cairo, Rommel was pushed back to where he started.

“SOME LAUGHTER” EIGHTH ARMY INVITED TO SURRENDER (British Official Wireless.) (Rec. noon.) RUGBY, September 6. A Cairo message detailing the past week's battle says that after going into attack early on , Monday morning, August 31, with the whole of the striking force available in Africa, after driving through our advance minefields, (Rommel turned north and north-east,, and spent Tuesday in a va/in attempt ito probe and penetrate our main defences. On Wednesday .the Eighth Army began to take the initiative, particularly in the south, where our armoured car patrols started to come round Ms right flank. On the third day two German officers presented themselves at our lines with a white flag and a message to the effect that enemy, armour had established itself in the rear of the British position, and the British armour had been defeated, . They invited the Eighth Army to surrender. The reply of the Eighth Army has been described as “ some laughter ” —a characteristic Eighth Army understatement, because on Thursday it became clear that, so far from the enemy making any further advance, he was, in .fact, being slowly but steadily cleared out by the combined efforts of the Army and Air Force, and was suffering very heavy losses, particularly in vehicles. ALLIED PRESSURE KEPT UP ALL OBJECTIVES GAINED (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, September 5. A Cairo communique states: “During the night of September 3 our troops in the central sector attacked enemy positions to the south-west and gained their objectives. In the northern sector our patrols were active. The enemy bombed and machine-gunned one of our defended areas yesterday, and three enemy counter-attacks -with infantry and armour against the positions gained by us the previous night in the central sector were driven off by our troops and by intense artillery fire. Enemy infantry losses were heavy. “ Further south in the Himeimat area,” the communique adds, “our armoured and mobile forces and artillery continued the pressure on the main enemy concentrations, which again moved slightly to the west. A number of abandoned enemy tanks were destroyed.” The British United Press correspondent in the Western Desert says FieldMarshal Rommel is re-forming his tanks just beyond the battle area. He has also thrown a wall of anti-tank guns around his motor transport. Nevertheless, our guns and pianos are ceaselessly hammering them.