PAUSE IN BLITZKRIEG

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 December 1940, Page 5

PAUSE IN BLITZKRIEG

ENEMY TRYING TO HOLD BARDIA CORRESPONDENT’S STORY. GLIMPSE OF NEW ZEALAND . SOLDIERS. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON. December 22. The helter-skelter “blitzkrieg” in the Western Desert has finished for the present at least, says the Solium correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph.” The Italians have decided to stick iin their toes round Bardia and give battle seriously in spite of the evacuation of the Italian air force personnel, material and other stores which earlier suggested that the enemy would surrender the little seaport without a fight.

The British patrolsare coming under the fire of well-placed artillery round the enemy’s concentric lines of defence. Our battle-worn armoured brigades require sleep, food, water and petrol before opening the next phase, the correspondent continues. Ten days has •seen the front lines advance 150 miles over barren country through which there is only one road for supplies. The correspondent adds: “I heard of no real breakdown in essential services anywhere. Almost magically necessities and even letters from home are reaching the men who work, eat and try to sleep on the gale-blasted escarpment.

“Travelling along the road with a non-stop stream of traffic, I met New Zealanders and Australians. They were happy, though they did not look it at first glance—no one could look happy with his face behind a mask of dust and his eyes screwed up with the strain of peering into sandstorms in which the visibility is only a couple of yards.”