FIRST SHOCKS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 May 1942, Page 3

FIRST SHOCKS

GIVEN BV THE EIGHTH ARMY BRITISH CORRESPONDENT’S STORY. MASSES OF TANKS MOVING UP. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, May 28. . The correspondent of the British United Press with the Eighth Army in the Western Desert says, “With even stronger forces than we had in November/ the Eighth Army is giving Rommel his first shocks in the battles raging in the desert. I saw the reason when I drove to the front, weaving among convoys of reinforcements n hundred miles long. I have never in two years of desert warfare seen so many tanks moving up. “The main move of the Axis is to attempt to outflapk our positions by a drive round our defences in the Bir Hakheim area, which is arranged so that we have a mobile perimeter stretching out to the desert far from the outer defence positions proper. “British armoured units moved .in fan formation to meet the advancing Germans, and a huge battle began. “The Axis forces must carry water supplies for at least three days or capture our wells in this area, which is very dry. “The Axis also began attacks at various points to the north which are not on the map, this action being apparently designed to hold our northern flank. Rommel opened these attacks with heavy artillery and dive-bombers of which he seems to have had heavy reinforcements.” Part of the Afrika Corps under General von Nehring and ,an armoured unit commanded by General von Bismarck are participating in the attack.