How the Attack Started

Manawatu Times, Volume 67, Issue 210, 3 September 1942, Page 5

How the Attack Started

ROMMEL PROCEEDS WITH EXTREME CAUTION. LONDON, Sept. 1. Earlier messages stated that Rommel had advanced eight miles jn his new push in the southern sector of the Alamein front, says Reuter’s Cairo correspondent. The acvance was made through Allied minefields. The Axis attempt to punch through the centre of the Alamein line, however, has been firmly held, and the situation there is described as -jeing fully under control. Heavy lighting continues In the southern sector. The Germans are using all types of equipment, including heavy tanks and dive-bombers. By the light of a waning moon, two strong Axis columns thrust towards General Montgomery s fluid southern sector at one o’clock on Monday morning, says a Cairo message. Allied artillery and air forces vigorously attacked the German tanks, which were accompanied by big formations of motor transports, as they pushed forward along dry riverbeds. Rommel’s 19th Light Infantry Division was heavily shelled as it became entangled in a minefield. It was then engaged by our infantry. Allied tank lorces did not make contact with the enemy throughout yesterday. The Axis lorces have slightly withdrawn from one point they reached a little to the north-east of El Himeimat, which is the hill position on the edge of the Quattara Depression around which the main fighting proceeded all day. This was the farthest point of the Axis advance. The British United Press correspondent with the Eight Army says that Rommel’s advance is characterised by extreme caution. The German tanks are mostly Mark 3’s, which are not attacking in a body but are widely spread out in clusters. Rommel transferred supplies of ammunition and fuel and other stores on Tuesday and Wednesday from the north to the south. The Allied air forces observed the movement and severely pasted the German transports. Dust-storms aided the early stages of Rommel s attack, particularly because they interfered with the refuelling ol our planes. After visibility had improved in the battle area yesterday, unusually heavy concentrations of Stukas appeared. Allied lighters dispersed them and forced them to jettison their bombs, sometimes over their own lines. Despite yesterday s intensive air battles, the R.A.F. lost not. •x s.ngle fighter pilot. The newest United States medium bombers in the Middle East, the “Mitchell B-25’’ type, nave gone into battle with all-American crews and alread> have inflicted heavy damage on the enemy. The Mitchell B-25 is the fastest aircraft of its kind in Egypt.