FIERCE BARRAGE PUT DOWN

Southland Times, Issue 24889, 31 October 1942, Page 5

FIERCE BARRAGE PUT DOWN

HUNDREDS OF DAZED PRISONERS (Official War Correspondent) (Rec. 11 p.m.) ALAMEIN FRONT, Oct. 25. The tremendous effect of the artillery barrage put down for the initial attack on the German and Italian defences on the El Alamein line has been shown by hundreds of dazed prisoners and by reports of infantry who advanced behind our continuous line of creeping explosions. Even German prisoners were glad to be able to be captured. They had not believed that an attack of such ferocity could be launched so suddenly. Some prisoners came through the barrage to surrender. Many had dressed hurriedly and had not even stopped to lace their boots. Infantrymen, who made the long advance towards the second objective spoke this morning of the huge pattern of shell bursts in front of them. “Some ground we went over had shell holes a few feet apart all over it,” one Bren gunner said. “Parts of it looked almost like a carpet of sharpnel. We were told to catch the Germans by surprise. We did, and there were shells bursting in front of us all the way.” Many platoons in the second advance met little opposition until they were close to their objective. The first line of trenches they came to had been left hurriedly by the Germans. Some idea of the intensity of the barrage can be gained by comparing it with the defensive fire our guns laid down against the Afrika Korps’ attack in the south of the line at the end of August. In four hours of this attack one gun alone fired more than twice the number of rounds put through in the whole of their defensive action. KEEN GUNNERS The guns were put in their lines as carefully and as secretly as the infantry movements before the attack were made. Gunners, who had prepared gun positions and dug in supplies and ammunition, were keen to begin the battle but not a shot was fired before the barrage began. “Everyone gave a hand to keep the guns going,” an artillery officer said today. “Some of the ackack gunners joined in our gun teams. Cooks, bottle-washers, every spare man in the regiment helped with the ammunition.” Asked to compare the fire of our guns with other artillery barrages he knew of in this and the last war, the officer said that probably no heavier concentration of fire had ever been put down in the Russian war. “I would compare it with the barrages of July 1918,” he said. “The difference is that very little of our fire was wasted.”

DESERT TASK FORCE AMERICAN PLANES IN ACTION LONDON, October 30. A desert task force of the United States Army Middle East Air Force continued large scale operations over the battle area yesterday, states a communique. The force repeatedly attacked enemy positions, tanks and motor vehicles, scoring direct hits and starting many fires. Our fighters were with the enemy all day. The enemy sought to avoid combat. We shot down four Messerschmitt 109’s.