FIGHT TO DEATH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 November 1941, Page 6

FIGHT TO DEATH

TREMENDOUS 24 HOURS TANK & OTHER WRECKAGE LITTERING DESERT. GREAT ACTIVITY BEHIND LINES. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, November 27. The “Daily Express” correspondent with the Eighth Army in a message dated November 25 says: “It has been a tremendous 24 hours, in which British and German armoured forces fought each other to the death for many miles around the south-east approaches to Tobruk.

“The desert is littered with broken and burning vehicles, overturned trucks, smashed guns and upended, smouldering aircraft, while all over the battlefield wounded and lost men are sorting themselves out trying to find their units.

“There is no front line. The British and German tanks met and wiped out each other; that is all. “Both sides have taken thousands of prisoners and suffered thousands of casualties.

“It remains now for the remnants of the opposing armoured forces to reform and wait for reinforcements to reopen this bloodiest and swiftest battle the desert has ever seen. “I have been travelling over the battlefield, but it is impossible to give news of the fate of different units. Scattered parties are everywhere, while British air fleets roar endlessly past, bombing and fighting off enemy aircraft.

“There is terrific activity behind our lines.” British officers who talked with German prisoners said the Germans seemed tired of fighting. One German pilot who made a crash-landing unharmed, exclaimed to his captors, “Thank God! I’ve had enough.”