GRIP ON BARDIA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 January 1941, Page 6

GRIP ON BARDIA

PROGRESS OF THE BRITISH OPERATIONS PATROLS PENETRATE DEEPLY INTO LIBYA. THE ENEMY FLYING CIRCUS. I ■ By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright ■ j (Received This Day. 12.30 p.m.) LONDON. January 1. British patrols have been operating more than seventy miles ini side Libya for the past two days, reports Reuter's correspondent in the Western Desert. An armoured car patrol penetrated to a few miles southward of the Tobruk sector, and spent the day observing the defences. An important aerodrome was found deserted and the patrol surprised an Italian detachment, which fled. I The latest information discloses that ! the Bardia garrison consists of the : remnants of four divisions, numbering i 29.000 men. The town's defences conLsists of forty forts, linked by barbed ; wire, with,an anti-tank ditch sixteen ! fee* wide. Each fort holds 30 to 40 I men.

The "Daily Mail's" Cairo correspondent says the British commanders are reckoning with the possibility that the defenders will realise the hopelessness of their position and surrender in time. As the days pass and a big attack is not launched, the defenders must know that it will be the more shattering when it comes. Once daily, the Italians send out what the British have dubbed a "flying circus.” It consists of about a dozen bombers, escorted by a crowd of lighters It makes a stately demonstration flight round Bardia. drops a few bombs, and retires to Tobruk, but the circus has been noticeably more nervous and less stately in the las', few days, because of the more intensified British ground fire.

Many captured Italian officers have declared that Marshal Graziani intends to make a big stand at Tobruk, for which reason Bardia has been thrown to the wolves. Marshal Graziani is now facing the problem of guarding Libya's western frontier more strongly than ever.

The latest German demands against Vichy and General Weygand's continued presence in Africa, have seriously complicated the Italian plans. British salvage squads are working day and night, collecting, classifying and. repairing captured vehicles, hundreds of which are still lying in the desert many of them bearing the slogan "Alexandria by Christmas." Groups of prisoners continue to straggle in. most of them hoarsely crying for water.