BITTER BLOW

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 June 1942, Page 3

BITTER BLOW

PROFOUND DISAPPOINTMENT IN BRITAIN OVER FALL OF TOBRUK. NEED OF AUGMENTED EFFORT. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.0 a.m.) RUGBY, June 22. The news of the fall of Tobruk has been received with . profound disappointment in Britain, where the loss of so many valiant and well-tried troops, including those of the First South African Division, is felt as a bitter blow. The general mood is well expressed by “The Times,” which says: “Neither in London nor in Cairo will there now be any disposition to underestimate the danger. General Auchinleck confronts a victorious army at whose hands his troops have suffered a costly defeat. The course of the campaign has shown that, whatever hopes may have been entertained of their newest weapons, the advantage of equipment has throughout been against them. However a lost battle is not a lost campaign. The British task now is to halt Rommel on the long and difficult road into Egypt and to assemble the strength that may ohce again force his retirement to the west, but it calls for radical innovations in tactical methods and mechanical design.” An agency correspondent in Egypt in a message on the fall of Tobruk, says the fortress was attacked throughout Saturday with a ferocity never hitherto displayed in any phase of the Desert campaign. On Sunday the Germans brought up a great amount of artillery, including anti-tank and anti-aircraft guns, to the part of the perimeter they had taken, and cleared it of minefields. After dawn it was evident, as a result of waves of dive-bombing and artillery pounding, the garrison could not withstand the attack much longer, the port and even the hospital falling under fire. n i , The correspondent adds: Tn desert warfare, material counts above everything else and the German 88 millimetre guns can penetrate our tanks at a greater range than our guns can penetrate theirs. The success of the well-equipped Afrjka Corps against our armoured vehicles permitted Rommel to counter our attack and restore his positions. He attacked with a considerable superiority in armour.” The correspondent’s conclusion is that Rommel does not invent new tactics, but always acts with swiftness in pursuit of his original plan.