APPARENTLY STEMMED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 April 1941, Page 5

APPARENTLY STEMMED

GERMAN DRIVE IN LIBYA More Enemy Prisoners Taken CONTINUED PROGRESS IN ABYSSINIA CHEERFUL PREDICTION BY GENERAL SMUTS LONDON, April 16. A Cairo communique reports further patrol activity in the Tobruk-Sollum area, where the German drive appears to be stemmed. Further losses in men and material resulted in hand to hand fighting’. Prisoners taken include five officers and 75 other ranks. In Abyssinia, British troops are now 40 miles south of Dessie, one of the few strongholds still in enemy hands. A Cairo communique states that the British advance is only made possible by constant demolition operations. To the south and south-west of Addis Ababa and to the west of Moyale, British troops are making satisfactory progress. More and more prisoners are being taken. South African forces have captured 700 Italians in the advance on Dessie. Patrol bands continue to harass the enemy. Successful support is being given by the R.A.F., the South African and the Australian Air Force to the land operations. General Smuts declared in a speech at Cape Town that victory was assured, probably in another year or eighteen months. In South Africa a great job had been done in record time. There was a section in South Africa, he said, who had been holding back, but he believed they would be in at the end.