REZEGH CONFLICT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 November 1941, Page 6

REZEGH CONFLICT

BECOMING MORE INTENSE & FURIOUS ENEMY SHOWING WILD DESPERATION.

BRITISH FORCES TAKING BIG PART. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 1.5 p.m.) LONDON, November 24. The fighting around Sidi Rezegh is hourly becoming more intense and more furious says “The Times” .Cairo correspondent. General Rommel’s panzer forces are hitting back with wild desperation as the British draw in. Owing to tank casualties, the fighting is now over an area relatively smaller, although ,still large. There are no definite lines in a fixed plan but merely masses of (death-dealing tanks, manoeuvring, attacking and counter-attacking. x It is too early to say whether the German’s main supply dumps at Gambut have been seized. British supply arrangements are functioning excellently, but the enemy is indisputably encountering serious difficulties. It must be stressed that the battle in essence is being fought between English and Germans, the main brunt being borne by the armoured units, 75 per cent of which are English and the rest mainly South Africans. The R.A.F. is also predominantly English. These forces are bearing out the contention that, man for man and machine for machine, the British are more than a match for the Germans. Reuters Cairo correspondent says the area in which the battle is now raging is very broken, with two escarpments and innumerable wadis nearby. Under these conditions it would not be easy for either side to break off such bitter battles. The British air superiority continues.

GERMAN REPORT (Received This Day, 12.40 p.m.) LONDON, November 24. A military spokesman in Berlin denied that Bardia had been captured. A German communique claims that German and Italian counter-attacks in North Africa have proceeded successfully. It adds that the battle of Tobruk and strong British attacks on the Bar-dia-Sollum front are still in progress.