LIBYAN BATTLE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 May 1942, Page 4

LIBYAN BATTLE

DEVELOPING ON LINES ANTICIPATED DEFENCE NOWHERE BROKEN. R.A.F. DOING STERLING WORK. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 11.50 a.m.) RUGBY, May 88. The new Libyan battle is being fought generally on the lines anticipated by the British High Command, states an agency war correspondent with the Eighth Army correspondent. The correspondent says the battle which raged ail day yesterday on a' fifty-mile front, extending from the sea to a point north-east of Bir Hakheim, restarted this morning, encounters between opposing forces of tanks and armoured cars being fought in clouds of dust. At no point has the defence been broken by the Afrika Corps, commanded by General Nehring. When the battle abated last night, the ground was strewn with the wreckage of burnt-out vehicles. Axis casualties were particularly heavy when they came under the fire of British mobile artillery. One enemy column which came into contact, with British armoured forces sustained very heavy casualties. Italian forces which approached the British positions south of Gazala suffered similar casualties. A surprising feature of the campaign is stated by the correspondent to be the smallness of the Axis air support, only a few Junkers 88 and Stuka divebombers being seen. On the other hand ,the R.A.F., whose main efforts have been directed against supply columns and enemy aerodromes, has done sterling work. BATTLE OF MOVEMENT .SOME DETAILS FILLED IN. STRONG & ELABORATE DEFENCES (Received This Day, 1.30 p.m.) LONDON, May 28. A merry-go-round tank battle is still raging after 36 hours north-east of Bir Hakeim. The enemy has not made any appreciable advance, but fighting is becoming more intense. The enemy is being hotly opposed by land and air. It is reliably stated in Cairo that the Germans are using “a considerable force of tanks,” while “hundreds” of Imperial tanks are engaged. Reports from war correspondents, revealing details hitherto secret, give a clearer picture of the battleground 'and tactics. The British defences consist of a great minefield laid to canalise' the German thrusts into two areas. Behind the minefield are strongly fortified localties, between which it is possible for enemy tanks to penetrate. The two original German thrusts took canals dictated by the minefields' and encountered strong localities at Gazala and Bir Hakeim. The Germans were driven back at Gazala and repulsed at Bir Hakeim, but. the .Bir.. Hakeim column divided. One of its parts is still being engaged at Bir Hakeim. The other swept north-eastward to El Adem, where it is being opposed by Imperial tanks in a battle which is now going on on hilly and rocky ground between Gazala and Tobruk and among a mass of dugin positions and strong points, with an all-round field of fire, which our troops are using effectively.