STRONG GERMAN POSITIONS

Southland Times, Issue 24887, 29 October 1942, Page 5

STRONG GERMAN POSITIONS

FORTIFICATIONS TO GREAT DEPTH

(Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON, October 27. The news reaching London of the present Allied attack in Egypt is probably more sparse than during any previous large-scale operation in the Western Desert. Little beyond the brief, but encouraging, details contained in the communique is known; It is widely accepted by the Press military commentators that at least several days must elapse before anything like a decision can be reached.

The Times says: “Experience of such actions shows that such struggles as must now be expected are apt in the early stages to sway grimly backwards and forwards over the same ground for many days before the resistance of the enemy can be broken and the way cleared for an armoured assault. FieldMarshal Rommel today occupies a stronger defence position than any he has held in the North African war and he has had an abundance of time to fortify it to a great depth. The Allied infantry have successfully traversed his mine-fields and have demolished some of the other lines in his defence system. Substantial numbers of prisoners, too, have been taken, but the onset of the armoured forces, which is the main battle, has barely begun.” In the fourth day of the battle in the Western Desert the Bth Army has consolidated its early gains and has thrown back enemy counter-attacks, says the Cairo correspondent of the Associated Press of America. He adds that FieldMarshal Rommel’s main positions have been penetrated at some points and that there has been hand-to-hand fighting in the infantry night advances. BRITISH FACE HARD TASK

The action along the whole front has been characterized by the activity of the big guns on our side, he says. While along some sections of the front the Allied gains are being consolidated, operations elsewhere are aimed at destroying the enemy pockets left behind during the initial advance. There is no concealing the fact that a hard task faces the Bth Army in battering down the concentrated enemy forces. Thus, even the slightest gains of ground are important over a terrain where for the past four months the enemy has been digging in behind a protective screen of minefields and has considerable defences in depth. The German communique says: “The Egyptian battle is continuing with undiminished violence. The British yesterday threw in fresh forces and tried vainly to break through the Italian and German positions. The Italians and Germans destroyed 111 tanks and 38 armoured cars. Italian and German planes increasingly attacked the British rear communications. They shot down 14 Allied machines over the battle area and the Mediterranean.”

The Italian communique repeats the German communique, but claims in all 22 Allied planes shot down. It says that one Italian submarine failed to return to its base and one enemy submarine was sunk.

The German News Agency said the Bth Army had brought up reserves and extended the offensive to the central sector, but nowhere gained a decisive advantage. The British attempted to turn the Axis position from the Qattar a Depression and. lost several tanks. STRONG ATTACKING FORCES The German newspaper Volkischer Beobachter declared that the Allied offensive in the Western Desert was being carried out with extraordinarily strong forces. It need hardly be emphasized,” says the paper, “that the Axis forces have to face the hardest demands. It is obvious that the enemy has concentrated his war effort in North Africa.” Berlin radio reported that British troops from east of Mersa Matruh early today attempted a landing in speedboats behind the Axis positions at El Alamein, but Italian bombers caused their withdrawal. A German radio despatch from El Alamein states that Axis tanks, supported by infantry, engaged British tanks in bitter fights. The battle continued all Sunday night and on Monday morning even increased in violence. “Although the battle is not yet ever, we are in a position to state that the Italian and German forces stood up to the powerful attacks unleashed by the enemy,” stated the report. USE OF SEA-POWER (8.0.W.) RUGBY, October 27. “The world today is witnessing the most impressive demonstration of seapower in history,” said Admiral Harold R. Stark, commander of the United States Naval Forces in Europe, broadcasting to America on the occasion of the United States Navy Day celebration. Admiral Stark said a second, third or fourth or any number of additional fronts were possible only if the sea lanes were kept open and it was only by control of the sea lanes and air lanes overseas that the United States could bring to bear its enormous strength. Sea-power alone could not win the war, but only sea-power could ensure transport of men and munitions to vital theatres. Either we would go to the enemy or the enemy would come to us. That was the great issue. Sea-power would decide that issue.

Until a year ago Britain and her Dominions were fighting almost alone to control the vital sea lanes. For two and a-half years the British Navy singlehanded, had in fact kept open the road to victory for our way of life against the Nazi tyranny.