GREAT ACHIEVEMENT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 May 1941, Page 5

GREAT ACHIEVEMENT

CONQUEST OF EAST AFRICA i BRITISH MINISTER’S SURVEY. HONOURS FOR GENERALS. | (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY. May 28. | Recalling that lie had described Ma-jor-General Cunningham's advance in ' East Africa from Kenya to Jijiga as a world's record of distance in such an astonishing time, Lord Croft, Joint Parliamentary Under-Secretary to the Wai- Office, speaking in the House of Lords, said: "To that record must now be added the 300 miles to Addis Ababa and the 330 miles thence to Dessie and Amba Alagi. This is an advance of 1400 miles from the Kenya frontier and 1731 from the original railhead "There now remain only two pockets of the enemy to be cleaned up.” Lord Croft said that probably some 17.000 of the enemy were in the Gonclar district, where Sudanese troops took 800 prisoners on May 17 and a further 300 on May 21. The other considerable enemy force was in the Jimma area, where in the battle of the lakes last Wednesday GOO prisoners with 10 guns and five tanks were captured in the north of the district, and 4400 with 32 guns and 14 tanks in the south. IMPORTANCE OF KEREN. Speaking of the “vital strategic battle of Keren,” Lord Croft said that the Imperial troops assailed heights varying from 4000 to 7000 feet with a precipitous approach. He doubted whether any troops in the world could have tackled this formidable job as successfully as the hardened troops of India, trained to mountain warfare. Lord Croft pointed out that the obvious strategy of the Axis is to pinch out Egypt and the Suez Canal. The first essential to thwart the enemy plan was to remove from Egypt's rear the Italian armies in East Africa and prevent the Duke of Aosta from attacking through the Sudan with 250,000 well-equipped troops. In Britain there had been pride- and enthusiasm at the highly successful results of this hard fighting in a war of continuous movement and assault against a wellequipped enemy who defended a succession of very strong positions. “These events may well have a decisive influence on the momentous days which face the British Empire in the Middle East," Lord Croft said. SOUTH AFRICANS PRAISED. The Dominions Secretary, Lord Cranborne, in a broadcast today to South Africa, paid a warm tribute to the part played by the South African forces in. the East African victories. "The Union forces advanced through the 250 miles from Kismayu, in Italian Somaliland, at a rate of 23 miles a day. and at a rate of no less than 50 miles a day after crossing the Juba River." he said. They later improved even on this. “On March 31 they reached Gabreparre, 370 miles from Mogadishu, making an average of 31 miles a day; Jijiga, Harar and Diredawa fell in succession, and the capital, Addis Ababa, was reached in two days from the I Awash River, a distance of 110 miles. Then followed Dessie and finally Amba Alagi. "The Union forces had covered 1500 miles in 94 days, a feat so much beyond comparison that there is no need to quote the figures of the Italian campaign of five years ago.” Major-General Alan C. Cunningham, who was in command of the East African campaign and Major-General William Platt, who conducted the invasion of Eritrea, receive the order of Knights Commander of the Bath in the East Africa campaign honours list. Major-General A. R. Godwin-Austen, Colonel H. E. De Wetherall and Bri-gadier-General G. E. Brink receive the companionage of the Bath, and MajorGeneral L. M. Heath is made a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire. MORE ITALIANS CAPTURED LONDON. May 29. In Abyssinia operations continue satisfactorily in all areas. Another body of Italians in south-west Abyssinia has surrendered to patriot forces. STEADY PROGRESS IN ABYSSINIA & IRAQ. ROAD CLEARANCE NORTH OF DESSIE. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.5 a.mJ RUGBY. May 29. Military circles in London note with satisfaction that both in Abyssinia and Iraq steady progress is being made. In Northern Abyssinia British and Imperial forces are systematically clearing blocked roads in the area north of Dessie. In the south, patriot forces, with British officers, have surrounded Baco. where the strength of the Italian garrison is not known hero. In Iraq the British Imperial forces are advancing towards Bagdad from Fallujah, but it is not known how fast or how far. The Iraquis are quitting the irrigation boundaries and