TANK BATTLE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 November 1941, Page 5

TANK BATTLE

HEAVY LOSSES ON BOTH SIDES ENEMY SANDWICHED. BETWEEN BRITISH MAIN BODY & TOBRUK FORCE. LONDON, November 24. Reports of the confused battle situation in the Western Desert show that the main tank struggle is going on round Rezegh, where the bulk of the German armoured forces are engaged between General Cunningham’s tanks on the south and south-east and the tank force which broke out of Tobruk in the north. The fighting is terrific and the losses on both sides are heavy. Near El Gubbi the Italian armoured force has been stiffened by the arrival of some Germans. Well to the east the New Zealanders, after taking Sidi Azeiz, Capuzzo, and now Bardia (the last apparently without opposition) are strongly established on the escarpment while some of them are reported to be pushing along the road westward to join in the big battle round Rezegh. Other frontier strongpoints have been,, captured, and the Germans along the frontier are fighting hard under pressure from both sides and are in an increasingly precarious position; The South African force is reported to be driving toward the Italian armoured division which has reformed 30 miles west of El Adem presumably in an effort to screen an Axis withdrawal to Derna. The fighting in the air is on a far bigger scale than in the early days of the offensive, the enemy having brought up aircraft reinforcements, but the Imperial air force continues operating with splendid effect. HAUL OF PRISONERS. A correspondent of the British United Press with the Eighth Army said yesterday that the British so far had taken nearly 15,000 Italian and German prisoners ■» Rezegh, he said, had changed hands several times. British headquarters late last night said that the situation was good. An Indian division captured 8000 Italians with considerable equipment in the Sidi Omar area, but is encountering fierce resistance four and a half miles west of Sidi Omar. Stiff resistance is expected west of Tobruk, where the Italians have built heavy fortifications and have laid vast minefields. ITALIAN CLAIMS “BRITISH UNITS BADLY MAULED.” CAPTURE OF GENERAL. (Received This Day, 10.45 a.m.) LONDON, November 24. A Rome communique states: “Several British units were badly mauled or completely destroyed westwards of Solium, as was the case with the Fourth Armoured Brigade, the commander of which, General Sperling, was taken prisoner.”