SUCCESSFUL BLOW

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 May 1941, Page 6

SUCCESSFUL BLOW

STRUCK BY BRITISH FORCES AT TOBRUK PROGRESS IN ABYSSINIA. MORE PRISONERS TAKEN. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 11.55 a.m.) RUGBY, May 5. A communique issued by British Headquarters in the Middle East states: "In Libya, at Tobruk, on the night of May 3, our troops launched- a counterattack, inflicting heavy casualties on the enemy and breaking up preparations which were being made for a renewal of the enemy attack. "In the Solium area, our mechanised forces were again active. Several enemy detachments were successfully engaged with losses to them in personnel and armoured fighting vehicles. "In Abyssinia, in the Delub sector, Indian troops occupied Emadan and Ulethert on May 3. During the course of this action, a heavy counter-attack by the enemy, in greatly superior force, was driven back, leaving an officer and 250 ot' other ranks prisoners in our hands. Yesterday, further important positions were occupied and the advance upon Amba Alaga is steadily progressing. A large number of enemy troops surrendered —the number is not yet counted. In southern districts, further progress was reported by all our columns operating in pursuit of the enemy." Reuters correspondent with the British Imperial forces in Libya reports that 3000 prisoners have now been taken by the defenders of Tobruk following the five-days’ attack by the enemy, in which 50 of their tanks were either destroyed or put out of action. An Italian communique says: "Our operations in the Tobruk sector continue. Our planes’bombed the fortifications.”

SPIRITED DEFENCE BLOW TO GERMAN HOPES. RESTRICTED USE OF COASTAL ROAD. (Received This Day, 1.20 p.m.) LONDON, May 5. After breaking up the ItalianGerman preparations for a fresh attack against Tobruk, the British forres yesterday threw up new deforces yesterday threw up new desectcr of the outer defence ring which the enemy occupied last week. Military circles in Cairo said thef British aimed thereby to preserve the outer ring unbroken. This objective has now been achieved. The portion of the defences occupied by the enemy is about two thousand yards long, but its depth is slight. The Italians and Germans are nowhere near the inner ring. Tlie vigour with which the defenders of Tobruk assailed the attackers surprised the Italians and Gerhans on Wednesday and Thursday last. The enemy attack lacked co-ordina-tion. Eleven tanks, in one assault, headed for an Australian anti-tank gun, but it and a neighbouring gun quickly destroyed four of the tanks. Three members of the crew of the Aus-, tralian gun were wounded, but the other three carried on until the attack was beaten off. after which our troops immediately resumed their offensive, patrolling, while the artillery resumed the bombardment of enemy communications. The opinion in Cairo is that the failure of the attack on Tobruk means a heavy blow to the German preparations for an advance against Egypt, because they cannot fully use the coastal road, while every day's delay means that we are enabled further to reinforce our troops in the Western Desert.

INDIAN TROOPS ADVANCING'INTO HEART OF MOUNTAINS. ENEMY MAKING THE MOST OF TERRAIN. LONDON, May 5. Indian troops have reached 150 miles southward of Asmara, into the heart cf the mountainous area in North Abyssinia and lhe advance continues on tracks winding along the sides of mountains and through gorges, where the enemy is using every advantage of the terrain to block progress. Amba Alagi, the present objective of the Imperial forces, is situated in an area thousands of feet high.