STILL RAGING IN LIBYA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 June 1942, Page 3

STILL RAGING IN LIBYA

Three Major Engagements in Progress Simultaneously , - # FIERCEST FIGHTING YET SEEN IN NORTH AFRICA R.A.F. AND NAVY GIVING SPLENDID SUPPORT TO LAND FORCES LONDON,. June 7. In Libya, three battles are going on at once. The first is round Knightsbridge, south of Tobruk. . Yesterday the enemy made desperate attempts to hold his positions at this track junction, but after hours of intense fighting he was driven westward, back to the “Devil’s Cauldron,” immediately east of the gap in' the British minefield. Knightsbridge is rather like a fortified port from which tank columns go out against the enemy like battle fleets. The second battle is just inside the Cauldron itself. JSome of our armoured units have reached a point six miles south-west of Knightsbridge. This point was previously held by a panzer division. The third battle is at Bir Hachiem, on the Allied southern flank, where the Free French are still making the Axis pay a. <• heavy price for their unsuccessful attacks A correspondent states that the fighting is more bitter and on a larger scale than anything yet known in North Africa. It is stated that there are bound to be heavy losses in tanks and guns on both sides but so far the Axis have suffered the heavier losses. Another correspondent also speaks about the violence , of the fighting—the worst that British soldiers have yet known ? in this war. Heat, dust, sandstorms, and njon-stop shellfire have . turned the battlefield into an inferno. > The R.A.F. is still giving very powerful help to the ground forces. Bombers and fighters ranged the battlefield in force and three Messerschmitts were shot down and many enemy vehicles were destroyed or damaged. Not a single British plane was lost. On Friday the enemy bases at Martuba and Derna were attacked and on Friday night our planes crossed the Mediterranean and plastered the harbour at Naples. The Royal Navy is doing a magnificent job and is giving tremendous help to our forces by keeping up a service to Tobruk. It is also rigidly controlling the North African coast and making lightning raids on the enemy’s communications.