ACCORDING TO GOEBBELS

Evening Star, Issue 24324, 13 October 1942, Page 3

ACCORDING TO GOEBBELS

EARLY ALLIED MOVE IN EGYPT GENERAL ALEXANDER ABOUT TO LAUNCH OFFENSIVE (Roc. 12.30 p.m.) LONDON, Oct. 12. The International News Office, Goebbels’s latest propaganda agency, predicts an early Allied attack in the Western Desert. It says Axis military circles are satisfied that General Alexander is about to launch an offensive before the rainy period sets in, converting the Qattara depression into an insurmountable quagmire. The German air force in the Mediterranean zone has been consider- . ably strengthened. Air activity by both sides on the African front has increased to a remarkable extent. German reconnaissances have seen strong Allied motorised columns ready behind the south wing of the British Alamein front, also the Qattara depression. Allied artillery fire is increasing on the central and northern fronts, while their air force is more frequently in the skies over the battlefield, and in the greatest force. The Berlin, radio says 1,000 medium and heavy bombs were dropped on Malta yesterday during attacks lasting from dawn to dusk. It claims that several squadrons of Anglo-American long-range bombers and transport planes were destroyed on the ground and large fires were started. The raids on Malta are connected with the Libyan campaign.