SORTIE AT TOBRUK

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 September 1941, Page 5

SORTIE AT TOBRUK

DARING WORK BY EMPIRE FORCES LONG CRAWL THROUGH MINEFIELD. FOLLOWED BY BAYONET CHARGE. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, September 2. Ceaseless activity underlies the superficial “all quiet” of British and Australian troops at Tobruk, and typical of this is the story of a sortie in the El Adem sector on the night of August 30 in which raiders crawled in single file for two miles through a minefield and attacked an observation post the position of which had been revealed by reconnaissances on the previous day. The patrol started after midnight and were almost ready for the final attack when Verey lights lit up the scene and the enemy post opened up rifle and machine-gun fire. The British patrol then charged with bayonets, tommy-guns and grenades, in spite of a volley of hand-grenades from the enemy, and stormed into the post. They killed 15 and wounded many of the enemy, who totalled about 50, before the crossfire from supporting posts forced a withdrawal. The patrol regained its lines with only slight casualties.