AFRICAN CAMPAIGN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 March 1941, Page 5

AFRICAN CAMPAIGN

FURTHER PROGRESS MADE IN ERITREA ADVANCE AT INCREASING PACE. TROOPS CLOSING IN ON KEREN. In Eritrea, the northern column of the British troops is advancing with increasing momentum and the forces are now in touch with enemy troops holding the outside defences of Keren. The R.A.F. has carried out a series of attacks on Italian advanced positions and bombed eneemy troops concentrations railway tracks and stations and other objectivs. In Abyssinia the offensive is developing with good effect and in Italian Somaliland the air force continues to bomb enemy objectives. Operations in Libya are confined to consolidating recent gains. The R.A.F. has given the enemy no rest. In an attack on Tripoli the other day, it has been ascertained that two important power stations were burnt out as a result of the raid.

PINCERS MOVEMENT

FROM NORTH AND SOUTH OF KEREN. ASSISTANCE BY R.A.F. LONDON, February 28. In Eritrea a British pincers movement is developing from the north and south of Keren. From the north the British column pushing down the coast has occupied another post, and one message says these forces are now within 15 miles of Keren. On all fronts the R.A.F. is rendering the utmost assistance.

TRANSPORT DRIVERS

SOUTH AFRICANS PRAISED. STRIKING TRIBUTE PAID. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, February 27. Speaking on a North African broadcast, the Commander-in-Chief in the Middle East, General Sir Archibald Wavell, paid a striking tribute to the Cape work companies. General Wavell, who was visiting troops at a place some 12 miles south of the Ken-ya-Abyssinian border, said, “A body of men who are doing extraordinary fine work both here and farther north are the Cape drivers of transport companies. “As I came through the Sudan on my way down here the general commanding there particularly spoke to me about the work these companies—which have been lent by the Union of South Africa to the Sudan—were doing in the advance in Eritrea. Down here General Cunningham tells me the same thing. I am very fortunate to have these magnificent troops under my command, and I know that whatever they do and wherever they will go they will give an extraordinarily good account of themselves. lam extremely proud to have thfem under my command, and I wish them all good fortune.

SWEPT FROM SKIES

ITALIANS IN EAST AFRICA. ENEMY’S POSITION BECOMING MORE SERIOUS. LONDON, February 27. British'aircraft have swept the Italians' from the skies- over Eritrea. The South African planes are blasting the Italians from their roads of retreat from Italian Somaliland to Addis Ababa, and the British and Allied land forces are hourly bringing nearer the fall of Italian East Africa. The troops from Kubkub, which are 15 miles from Keren after capturing Kelemit, 30 miles north of Keren, are sending back a column to occupy Nacfa, which the Italians have abandoned. , , The 15,000 Italians who are holding Keren will soon face the alternatives of encirclement or retreat under heavy fire from the flanks and from the air, but before the northern British forces reach Keren to complete the encirclement they must pass through a gorge flanked on one side by the 6000 ft. Ghelende Mountains and on the other by the 5000 ft. Mulct Mountain. The R.A.F., in supporting the army on all fronts in East Africa, effectively attacked stores, troop concentrations and supply dumps in the Keren area, bombed a large transport yard at Assab, raided ammunition stores and other objectives at Massawa and attacked a railway bridge at Hawash. All the planes have returned. In four weeks the South Africans alone have claimed 80 Italian planes. 50 destroyed on the ground and 30 shot down. The Italians have lost 25 planes in the past three days. The bulk of six brigades have been shattered in Italian Somaliland and three brigade commanders taken prisoner. The road to Abyssinia lies open to the conquerors and also the road to British Somaliland, where there is only a thin isolated garrison. Nairobi reports that the British divisional commander in the Juba area sent his men to battle with a stirring message: “We have a chance to share Mr Churchill’s policy of tearing Mussolini’s Roman empire to tatters. Our campaign, if it is relentlessly conduced in every likelihood will have started the complete collapse of the Italians in East Africa. Fight fearlessly, shoot low, and move quickly. Go to it with high hearts, and the enemy will crack.”