DUST & SANDSTORMS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 August 1942, Page 3

DUST & SANDSTORMS

HINDERING OPERATIONS IN EGYPT AIR ATTACKS CONTINUED. ON TOBRUK AND SIDI BARRANI. LONDON, August 12. It is still mainly all quiet on the Egyptian battlefront. Dust and sandstorms have put the brake on air operations over the battlefield. Strong air attacks have been made on Tobruk and Sidi Barrani. A British Official Wireless message says it is reported from the Egyptian desert that fighter pilots of the United States Air Force are operating there. They have been distributed among the R.A.F. fighter squadrons to learn desert flying. SUPPLIES POURING IN , EIGHTH ARMY BEING STRENGTHENED. DESERT ARTILLERY DUELS. LONDON, August 11. The Eighth Army is being steadily strengthened by supplies and reinforcements arriving from the Suez Canal zone, reports the Cairo correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph.” Suez itself is prepared to handle twice the volume of supplies that arrived three months ago. Reuter’s correspondent says a feature of the fighting on the El Alamein front in the last fortnight has been the duels between British artillery—our 25-pounders captured by Rommel are now turned against us. British gunners at Ruweisat Ridge claim that we are getting the better of the duels. They say our fire has forced at least two enemy batteries from their desert holes, whereas we have not shifted our position once. Heavy Allied air attacks are again beginning to overshadow the artillery duels.