ALLIED ATTACKS
PRISONERS TAKEN & TANKS DESTROYED INDICATIONS OF IMPROVEMENT IN POSITION. NAZIS BEGINNING TO LOSE INITIATIVE. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) LONDON, July 5. Today’s Cairo communique says: “Our land and air forces continue to attack the enemy in the Alamein area. Enemy armoured units were forced to withdraw from a ridge to the south, ffiter a number had been knocked out. “Our air forces maintained their attack with maximum effect. Landing grounds at El Daba were bombed and five Messerschmitt 109 s, three Junkers 87s, and one Macchi were destroyed.” Allied forces sallied out from the Alamein positions yesterday morning and energetically took the offensive against the Axis forces. Fighting occurred in the same area as in the previous two days, and is described as mainly a gun battle. A number of enemy tanks were destroyed and a further 600 enemy prisoners taken. The Allied decision to take the offensive is based, it is reported, on evidence of the exhaustion of enemy units. British bombers on Friday night heavily attacked Field-Marshal Rommel’s concentrations and directly hit an ammunition train which blew up in a vivid sheet of flame.
General Auchinleck, for the second time in two days, employed flanking tactics on Friday. He personally directed a strong counter-thrust from the south where the New Zealand troops, a famous British artillery regiment, and a crack motorised brigade awaited this chance to strike.
Rommel was harried by Allied mobile units and hard-hitting anti-tank units, all of which were chipping at his lines from the border to the bottleneck. He is reported to be now throwing in all his air resources. Reuter’s Cairo correspondent says that undue optimism is discouraged at headquarters, but the enemy is expected to reach exhaustion point if held much longer. He is reported to be beginning to lose the initiative and the situation is much better for us.
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Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 July 1942, Page 3
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310ALLIED ATTACKS Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 July 1942, Page 3
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