PROGRESS BY . BRITISH

Southland Times, Issue 24888, 30 October 1942, Page 5

PROGRESS BY . BRITISH

SUPPORT GIVEN BY ARTILLERY (Rec. 10.50 p.m.) LONDON, Oct. 28. The pattern of today’s brief news from the Egyptian fighting remains broadly the same as during the last few days—the Bth Army with the heaviest artillery support so far produced is moving forward inch by inch in the face of stubborn resistance from the enemy’s well-prepared positions. The British United Press correspondent with the Bth Army says that Field-Marshal Erwin Rommel has a strong screen of 88 millimetre guns, behind which are grouped the main weight of his armour. The screen of artillery must be breached frontally or turned by a flanking move. Neither alternative is easy. Our sappers are toiling at the task of cleaning up the enemy mine-fields to give our armoured and supply vehicles room to manoeuvre and disperse. Meanwhile the Italian and German sappers are equally busy sowing new mine-fields to plug the threatened gaps and slow up our progress generally. GERMANS RECEIVE BLOW Yesterday’s tank battle developed after Field-Marshal Rommel threw his tanks against the positions we had captured the previous night. The infantry held on and enabled our tanks to come up and drive the Germans off. It was not an all-out armoured engagement, but headquarters states that the Germans received a substantial blow. The clash occurred at the point where we had achieved the deepest penetration. Reuters Cairo correspondent says the fact that the tank clash occurred indicated that the corridor driven into the enemy’s front had been sufficiently widened to permit tanks to manoeuvre. This is perhaps the beginning of the second phase—a phase in which the threat to a section of the enemy line forces him to armoured combat. Progress may seem slow and information meagre, but the wave of our attack daily washes a little further up the enemy beach. Berlin radio says that enemy bomber formations have been coming over for days in parade formation without deviating an inch, surrounded by swarms of fighters which hover in the air like bees. “We have never seen such a picture,” says the radio. FLANK ATTACK NOT POSSIBLE WELL-FORTIFIED AXIS LINE (8.0.W.) RUGBY, October 28. Speaking in London before the latest communique had been announced Lord Croft, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for War, said: “Last Friday night in bright moonlight the Imperial Army opened an offensive in what certainly is a battle of great moment. Here, for the first time, no flanking manoeuvre is possible and we have before us a wellfortified line widely protected against frontal attack by elaborate minefields. The enemy’s defence system is in great depth and the mines have to be cleared away and the defences piered by infantry before the armoured vehicles can hope to operate against the powerful artillery which the enemy disposes and get to grips with the panzer columns. This involves bloody fighting, but there is no alternative if Rommel’s veterans are to be shifted from their menacing position so near the Egyptian capital. “In this great offensive three fine British infantry divisions are in the spearhead of the attack, along with the Australians, New Zealanders, South Africans and Indians. We know that the British armoured divisions are close on their heels and we know that our Fighting French and Greek allies are in the show with us. We all realize what a tough proposition we are up against, but we also know that air co-operation has been on a scale that our soldiers have not previously experienced. Above all, we know that the morale of the whole Bth Army is very high. HAND-TO-HAND FIGHTING

“Once again it is a soldier’s battle in which we must assume that there is intense hand-to-hand fighting. We know that our infantry has made good progress in the north where the three objectives allotted them have been mostly gained and held. We know that we have punched hard, that in the first two days 1500 prisoners have reached our cages and that the counter-attacks against our Highlanders and Australians have been driven off. We know that by now there may be a gap or gaps through which our main armies may be able to deploy. “But we also know that this battle is just as vital for Rommel as for us and that he will throw in literally everything to prevent a break-through. We know that his highly experienced armoured and infantry divisions are waiting to meet our armour the moment it is able to deploy. “This morning we learned that our gains had been held, that British infantry had advanced further into the enemy defences and that counter-at-tacks had been repelled with loss to the enemy. The battle is still on and it is likely to continue.” Lord Croft added that up to the present the Imperial Armies, fighting on 13 fronts, had inflicted more than 650,000 casualties on the Axis.