DESERT DEFENCES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 October 1940, Page 5

DESERT DEFENCES

BRITISH ARMY AWAITING ITALIANS SLOW ENEMY ADVANCE. GREAT STORE OF ARMS PILED UP. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright/ LONDON, October 1. According to a correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” who travelled 200 miles by road from Alexandria to the defence line in the Western Desert, the British Army' is patiently waiting to do battle with the Italian forces. “Just one hour’s drive from here,” he writes, “across the savage, broken plain, Mussolini has piled up a store of arms ready to break on Egypt. Masses of Italian army vehicles are gathered in the Sidi Barrani sector. “Red-cocked Bedouin tribesmeii are leading their flocks and little groups of timid sloe-eyed wives deeper into the desert for safety. Here and there a camel has blundered on a landmine and its carcase lies rotting in the sun. “The gunnery of the Italians is good, a British brigadier told me. They use artillery very quickly and soundly, and also handle motor-cycles and side-cars effectively. The mass of them ride about 3000 yards ahead of an advancing column, and disperse among the rocks when they confront opposition, and await their supports. But the whole Italian advance has been slow, simple, and laboured, covering only about five miles a day.” The correspondent adds that dugouts have been increased and deepened. The defenders have become immune from attack from the air, but not from rats, which infest the trenches. Feverish work is proceeding on the construction of roads west of Sidi Barrani, but our bombers are constantly harassing the roadmen.