ATTEMPTED LANDING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 June 1942, Page 3

ATTEMPTED LANDING

ON LIBYAN COAST BROKEN UP BY NAVY. BRITISH PRIME MINISTER’S SURVEY OF BATTLE. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, June 2. “In Libya we have every reason to be satisfied and more than satisfied with the course the battle has taken,” stated Mr Churchill in the House of Commons today. He was quoting a report he had received from General Auchinleck, Commander-in-Chief, Middle East. General Rommel’s attack was foreseen, and our forces were ready for it, Mr Churchill said. The Premier revealed that the Royal Navy has been in action against an enemy attempt to land a force on the Mediterranean coast. This Axis Effort, which was evidently intended to place troops behind our lines in conjunction with the attack on the coastal road, was broken up, and the Axis ships were driven off. It is clear from documents which have been captured that Rommel intended to attack Tobruk, but his initial offensive has gone completely awry. We have destroyed or captured so far about 260 enemy tanks. Our own repair service is working well. The latest reports indicate ithat Rommel has withdrawn some of his tank forces as far back as 20 miles to the west. The battle is not yet over, and heavy fightis still to be expected.

BRITISH LEADERS OUTSTANDING GENERALS. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, June 1. Two outstanding figures in the Libyan campaign are Lieutenant-Generals W. H. E. Gott (who is known to every soldier in the Middle East as “Strafer”), and C. W. N. Norrie. General Gott, who is 45, and over

six feet tall, probably knows more about the Western Desert than any other senior British officer. He served in the last war, winning the Military Cross, to which were added the C.B.E. and D.S.O. and bar in 1941 in North Africa. Though General Norrie commands a corps, he has been further behind the German lines than any other senior officer. His profound belief in individual reconnaissance made it a normal procedure for him to set off in an unescorted truck, and he narrowly missed capture on several occasions. General Norrie is specially proud of his “Mosquitoes,” as he calls the hundreds of South African armoured cars in his corps. A squadron of his cars destroyed one of Rommel’s main petrol, oil and food depots, burnt 40 trucks, and .liquidated six grounded aeroplanes. General Norrie was wounded four times in. the Great War and won the D.S.O. and M.C. and bar. ;