EARLIER NEWS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 November 1941, Page 5

EARLIER NEWS

BRITISH ENVELOPING MOVEMENTS GERMANS RESISTING FURIOUSLY. AIRCRAFT BROUGHT FROM CRETE & ITALY. LONDON, November 27. After simmering for two days, the Sidi Rezegh battle is again reaching boiling point as reinforcements for both sides are taking tip positions, says the Cairo correspondent of “The Times.” The Germans everywhere are fighting back with sustained fury. Reuter’s correspondent with the Eighth Army says that General Rommel has used the suspension of the main tank battle to gather reinforcements to strengthen the German and Italian positions round Tobruk, where fierce fighting is developing. The “Daily Express correspondent said yesterday that it was understood in Cairo that the second great British tank offensive had begun. The British were reported to be making a new and wide encircling movement westward round General Rommel’s remaining groups of tanks in the Sidi Rezegh area in order to outflank and cut off the enemy from • his bases at Gazala and Derna.

Reuter’s correspondent with the Eighth Army says the most notable feature of the fighting is the unprecedented R.A.F. activity. An officer who served in Libya last year, and also in France, Greece and Crete, said: “This is the first time that, when aircraft are heard, one can say to oneself, ‘There’s no need to look. They are sure to be ours.’ ”

Nevertheless, the enemy are also throwing strong forces into the battle. The Germans are using heavy Messerschmitt reinforcements from Crete and Southern Italy. Twenty of our fighters attacked and drove off 70 Messerschmitts on the night of November 25, shooting down 10. In the frontier zone, New Zealanders are reported to have outflanked Solium’s defences, reaching the escarpment, from which they can pound the enemy position, 600 ft below. Our forces are also pressing still further northward round the Bardia area.