DEFENCE OF TOBRUK

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 May 1941, Page 6

DEFENCE OF TOBRUK

SOLID OBSTACLE IN NAZI PATH MANY ATTACKS SMASHED. HOW QUEENSLANDERS DEAL WITH TANKS. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.55 p.m.) LONDON. May 13. A month after the Germans’ first big attack on Tobruk, they are still outside the defences, which are now vastly superior to those which first confronted the Germans, says an Australian war correspondent in the fortress. The German tactics of tank advance, followed by infantry, have failed at Tobruk. Always, within the defences, the enemy has met a devastating artillery fire and tank resistance. Always on the wire his following infantry were slaughtered before they could consolidate the tank gaps. Tobruk can no longer be described as a thorn in the enemy's side. It is a solid obstacle that stands between him and the Canal. A British United Press correspondent at Tobruk, telling of the deeds of the Australian defenders of the fortress, says the Queenslanders have devised their own method of dealing With light Italian tanks. They creep up behind, climb on top, open the turret lid and drop in a Mills bomb. Then they sit on the lid for five seconds to prevent the occupants escaping. The Queenslanders destroyed three tanks in this way and three more with Molotov cocktails. German planes directly hit a hospital ship at Tobruk, but GOO wounded were transferred to an Australian/ destroyer.