HARRIED IN RETREAT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 February 1941, Page 5

HARRIED IN RETREAT

ITALIANS IN SOMALILAND SOUTH AFRICANS CAPTURE JUMBA. KEREN & ASMARA MENACED IN REAR. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON. February 22. It is officially announced that South African forces have captured Jumba in Italian Somaliland. The brigade staff and colonel have been taken prisoner and guns and material captured. The operation was preceded by a heavy bombing attack. Sudanese and Ethiopian forces are investing Burye, to which the Enjabara garrison is attempting to retreat. The southernmost British forces in Eritrea are now threatening both Keren and Asmara from the rear. The South African Air Force is constantly harrying the Italians. It set tire to Gelib, burning out the centre of the village. The King's African Rifles, landing from dhows, seized two islands in Refuge Bay, just south of Kismayu. which the Italians had evacuated. The names of the islands are Deiserpenti and Mphangayapap. ACROSS AFRICA JOURNEY BY FREE FRENCH FORCES. LONDON, February 23. Free French forces have crossed more than 2000 miles from Chad in French Equatorial Africa to Eritrea to join the British Imperial forces. A British United Press correspondent in Eritrea says the Free French forces disembarked at a Rod Sea port to take part in the drive on Keren. Before embarking for this port they travelled across a vast stretch of desert to Sudan in lorries in which they also brought their own equipment. Not one lorry wast lost. GRIM FATE SUFFERED BY ITALIAN BATTALION. TREK THROUGH WATERLESS DESERT LONDON. February 22. The story of a lost Italian battalion believed to bo meeting a grim end in the desert from privation and thirst is told by a correspondent with the South African forces in East Africa The ninety-fourth battalion of colo-

nial infantry left Afrnadu. 80 miles from the Kenya border, 11 days ago the night before British troops occupied the town. They remained in the neighbourhood for two days hoping the British would depart enabling them to return for water. Tin* battalion then started a trek through the waterless desert to Gelib. white they have not yet arrived. A ductor with the battalion returned tn Afrnadu and surrendered after trekking -hl miles. Their padre was found dying from thirst. The rest of the battalion are believed dead or dying.