8TH ARMY PENETRATES AXIS FRONT

Southland Times, Issue 24884, 26 October 1942, Page 5

8TH ARMY PENETRATES AXIS FRONT

OFFENSIVE STARTED IN DESERT LAND AND AIR FORCES CO-OPERATE CLOSELY (United Press Association —Telegraph Copyright) (Rec. 1.15 a.m.) LONDON, October 25. Lieutenant-General B. L. Montgomery’s Bth Army launched an attack against the Axis positions from El Alamein to the Qattara Depression at 10 o’clock on Friday night and at mid-day today it was reported in Cairo that the British troops had penetrated some of the enemy’s main positions and were holding the ground they had won. LieutenantGeneral Montgomery’s order to his troops was: “Destroy Rommel and his army.” From this it is deduced in London that a full-scale offensive has been launched. Lieutenant-General Montgomery, in an interview at his headquarters, spoke of the close co-operation between the land and air forces. “The Bth Army and the Air Force are working to one set plan,” he said. “They. are cooperating in great strength. I have always believed we should form one fighting force. The morale of the Bth Army is in the top line.” The British United Press correspondent with the Bth Army says: “We have large numbers of reinforcements. It has been a race between Field-Marshal Rommel and Lieutenant-General Montgomery to see who would strike first. We have beaten Field-Marshal Rommel to the starting post. If the type of material now available is any criterion we should do well. The Columbia Broadcasting system correspondent, Winston Burdett, broadcasting from Cairo says: “The Bth Army is attacking across a gun-swept stretch of sand which the Germans have littered with mine-fields 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 Field-Marshal Rommel, is at present commanding the Africa Corps. According to Italian sources Field-Marshal Rommel is worn out and is unfit for front line service. The Sunday Dispatch, in a leading article says: “This is no secondary effort, not even a reconnaissance in force, but an attack by the entire Bth Army. Our hope has been refreshed and our faith strengthened by the evidence of thorough preparation which preceded the zero hour. The very word ‘attack’ will electrify us and stimulate our Allies. We have a tonic in the knowledge that at last things are beginning to move.” The Sunday Express says: “The move may be a precursor to 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 communicated the thrill of battle to everyone. It 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.