GREATLY CHANGED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 December 1940, Page 5

GREATLY CHANGED

POSITION IN THE MIDDLE EAST TIME COME FOR BRITAIN TO STRIKE. SPLENDID WORK OF LAND & AIR FORCES. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, December 9. The Cairo correspondent of “The Times” states: “Today, just six months after the Italian entry into the war, find the British forces in the Middle East taking the offensive on most of the fronts. On the Abyssinian border Sudanese troops are hammering daily and nightly with artillery and machine-guns against the Italian positions at Metemma and Kassala, and the Royal Air Force is backing them up. "The Royal Navy is scouring both Ihe eastern and western Mediterranean. seeking an opportunity to attack, "The R.A.F. is battering at Albanian towns as the Greeks advance. "A staff officer has summed up the 'position in saying that it is ‘incomparably better than when France fell and much better than two months ago, but it is still difficult and full of possibilities. We are quietly confident; all the three services have been strengthened, and the Dominions are just getting into their stride on a big scale to support us. Il will probably be a long war.’ The correspondent continues: “The gradual, if slow building up of Britain’s Middle Eastern army has been made possible by the havoc wrought by the R.A..F. and the Navy on Graziani’s communications and also the dashing tactics of our mechanised cavalry in establishing absolute supremacy, which will rank as one of the most brilliant episodes in British military history. “The effectiveness of the hammering the R.A.F. has given the Libyan ports and supply depots can be judged from the fact that the Italians, when they attempted an offensive in September, soon found the effort defeated by the problem of supply, and from then on for three months they were practically tied down to the desert points to which they originally advanced, thanks to the co-operation of the three services. “The bogey of invasion, which for months scared the citizens of Cairo and Alexandria, gradually faded, and the shoe is now. on the other foot, because, as a result of the reinforcements of men and materials, the British army is in a pposiiion to hit back.”