FULL PRESSURE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 January 1941, Page 5

FULL PRESSURE

■MAINTAINED ON ALL FRONTS BY ALLIED LAND & AIR FORCES. POSSIBLE GERMAN ACTION. (BritLsh Official Wireless.) RUGBY. January 27. In the official communiques received during the past 48 hours from the Near East and Middle East theatres of war, including Ali bania. Libya, Western Abyssinia, Eritrea, Kenya and Italian Somaliland, more than a score of objectives—towns, villages, aerodromes and other areas of enemy concen- ; tration —have been defined as ob- j jectives of successful offensive ac- : tion by Allied land and air forces. Such a record of attack, which at: no point shows any signs of slacken-! ing. contradicts an irresponsible sug-1 gestion that Britain is fighting Italy! with gloved hands. The fact that on i all six fronts mentioned fighting is! progressing well inside Italiap ter-, ritory is itself obvious comment on; such views. In Albania the disorganisation and demoralisation of the Italian crack j divisions continues. In Libya the Allied forces, with Em-; pire troops well in the forefront, arc! at the gates of Derna, while aircraft incessantly bomb the aerodromes in ! the hinterland between that port and ] Benghazi. The pressure on the Italian East l African front on all sides is consist-] cntly increasing. To the east the cap- • lure of Kassala initiated tiie lightning I drive into Eritrea which has now ■ readied a depth of nearly 100 miles.] Agordat, a little over 100 miles from * the Eritrean capital, Massawa, and' the coast, is threatened. To the south-east patrols have pene-j trated extensively into Italian Somali-( kind, and from the west the British I forces, aided by growing numbers of i Abyssinian patriots, are thrusting from ! Metemma into Abyssinia, forcing the' Italians to abandon post after post, i In many areas on the Kenya front m the south British patrols are oper- ] ating well inside the enemy territory. | PROBLEMS FOR HITLER. 'Die confidence felt here in the out-1 come of the entire African campaign, ‘ which lias converted total defensive action into total offensive action, is reflected in a leading article by "The Times." Dealing with the Libyan of-[ fensive. ‘'The Times" states: "The I latest victory at Tobruk leaves the! Italian army m Libya in such a state! that it has ceased to be a prime factor! in the situation. What has now to be I considered is our own desires, the pos- | sible intentions of Germany, and the] best means to prevent her from re-i pairing the damage or even exploiting; tiie reverses of her unfortunate ally.” i A cautious note, however, is .-■■.truck I regarding possible extern-ion of German assistance and the omseqiieni weakening of ‘lie total forces massing | against Britain, which Hitler has ok often declared is the mam decisive , theatre i f war It is fairly safe t,.i reckon,” says The Time:..'' that only I if Hitler's advisers were to warn him i of tin.- unlikelihood that success would i attend his plan- f<>r an attack on this, i country would he definitely turn j aside and make the Mediterranean and I South-Eastern Europe his main theatre i OF STRATEGIC MOMENT VICTORIES IN NEAR EAST. STATr MENT BY 1 < HID HALIFAX . -v ii An -. Lord Hahf I jci !• : .'; 1 ;• - '■■ i '■ ■ ■ , - > • • : • < . ■ : . !;cv:nr th** Ervp*