SWIFT ADVANCE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 January 1941, Page 6

SWIFT ADVANCE

4*- 1 TWO-PRONG DRIVE INTO ERITREA INDIAN TROOPS PLAYING BIG PART. ITALIANS DRIVEN OUT OF STRONG DEFENCES. — I .By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright 1 ’ (Received This Dav. 12.5 p.m.) LONDON,'January 23. In a graphic dispatch sent by courier to a cable station from somewhere in Eritrea, a British United Press special correspondent describes the quick British penetration of Eritrea, particularly ! emphasising the effectiveness of the two-prong drive. The British split into two forces after crossing the frontier and met again at a point 35 miles from Agordat. near Bisha. All along the line the British are advancing inexorably. Indian troops, with fixed bayonets, are playing a prominent part, although the Italians resisted at only three' points. The first clash was a minor! affair, the Italians withdrawing when threatened with a direct attack from a mobile force which covered forty : miles in one day. over difficult coun- ' try. The expulsion of the Italians from . Adjureit was one of the finest British I efforts. The enemy had retreated j from Gheru through a rocky gorge, which, they heavily mined. British sappers quickly cleared the gorge and mobile units swept through, while Indian troops climbed a nine hundred foot hill and. with fixed bayonets, charged down on the Italians, who wore driven out after a sharp en- : counter. A clash at Gogni occurred when a I •North-West Frontier force found Italians and colonial troops holding a strong position on a rocky ridge. The Frontiersmen, scrambling over the boulders, outflanked the enemy, who fled. T'he British advance started on Jami-j ary 15. when forward troops sighted i ’.he Italians near a hump-backed mountain close io Kassala. The Britsh rushed lorries along the nofth bam: of the River Gash and entered lessene). Meanwhile the second prong dashed from the Abu (’anal to a point southward of Tessenci The Indians charged down the mountain and enabled the pincers to close as they smashed the main core of the Italian resistance. SOME ENEMY CLAIMS. An Italian communique says fighting continues eastward of Derna. wheres the Italians repelled an enemy column. Italian native contingents made a surprise attack on an enemy post on the Kenya ironY inflicting heavy losses. Enemy, planes raided Catania lasi night. Another raid on Naples and its neighbourhood caused slight damage.