GERMANS IN EGYPT

Marlborough Express, Volume LXXVI, Issue 252, 26 October 1942, Page 5

GERMANS IN EGYPT

POWERFUL BRITISH ASSAULT MASSIVE BARRAGE AND' BOMBING,

P.A. Cable.

LONDON, Oct. 25.

What was perhaps the heaviest barrpge of the war in the desert was laid down by British artillery on Friday night when the 8th Army's advance began all along the El Alamein line. A correspondent at the front deseribes how the desert scene, beautiful under the full moon, was suddenly transformed at zero hornby the unleashing of a tornado of artillery fire. In a minute or two everything was let loose at the enemy, land as the biarrage crept forward our infantry advanced and cleared gaps through which our armour passed. By daylight the tanks had gone on ahead and were only diseernible as dust clouds in ihe distance. General Montgomery, in a message to the 8th Army before the advance, told the men that the battle was about to begin. "We are going ih to attack," he said. They had finished with standing on the defensive and were taking the offensive. The Army d'eserved success and he was determined they should have it. He told the 8th Army to destroy Rommel and his men. "Victory should swing our way," he said. The British United Press correspondent with the 8th Army says: "We have large numbers of reinforcements. It has been a racd between Rommel and Montgomery to see who would strike first. We have beaten Rommel to the starting post. If the type of material now available is any criterion, we should do well." The C.B.S. correspondent, Mr Winston Burdett, broadcasting from Cairo, says: "The 8th Army is attacking across a gun-swept stretch of sand, which the Germans littered with minefields and gun emplacements. They have four defence lines, forming a dense network as much as four miles deep." Informed circles in Stockholm insist that General Ramcke, not Rommel, is at present commanding the Afrika Korps. Aceording to Italian sources Rommel is worn out and unfit for front-line service. "Rarely have we witnessed such massive air attacks in North Africa as those carried out by the British," said Berlin radio. "The first wave of enemy planes was spotted early enough for our machines to go up, but we had not realised they were so many. They came from all directlons, attacking from high and low levels in extremely disciplined formations." TONIC EFFECT OF ATTACK. The Sunday Despatch, in a leader, says: "This is 110 secondary effort, not even reconnaissance in force, but attack by the entire 8th Army. Our hope is refreshed, our faith strengthened by the evidence of thorough preparation which preceded zero hour. The very word attack will electrify us and stimulate our allies, We have the tonic knowledge that at last things are beginning to move." The Sunday Express says editorially that the move may be the precursor of startling events. The desert may become the chief theatre in General Smuts's "new phase." J. L. Garvin, writing in the Sunday Express, says: "The news has communicated the thrill of battle to everyone and stirs every vein. We are already hammering while the iron is hot. If fortune prospers our arms it may be remembered as one of the decisive battles of the world." Berlin radio claims that the 8th Army's attack was expected for days, and that British tanks and infantry suffered such painful losses in the deep minefields that the German and Italian defence system was reached at only a few points. German and Italian counter-attacks, the radio said, inflicted heavy losses in men and material on the British, many of whom were taken prisoner. Axis forces thwarted a landing attempt at Mersa Matruh.