MORE SUCCESSES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 August 1942, Page 3

MORE SUCCESSES

GAINED BY ALLIED AIRCRAFT IN MIDDLE EAST THREE ITALIAN CRUISERS DAMAGED BY AMERICANS AT NAVARINO. R.A.F. ATTACKS RHODES. LONDON, August 13. Three Italian cruisers were flamaged in the Mediterranean by American Army bombers. Four cruisers were attacked in Navarino Harbour, on the south coast of Greece. Two hits on one cruiser caused a large explosion. A neaiy miss or a hit on a second cruiser caused a hugh column of black smoke. Another near miss was scored on a third cruiser and there was an explosion aboard when the bomb burst. R.A.F. bombers attacked the island of Rhodes for the first time for several months. Thirty enemy aircraft on a landing ground were straddled with bombs and many fires were started. Australian aircraft sank two more motor barges, which are being used by the Axis to bring up supplies along the coast of North Africa. CALM BEFORE STORM IN THE DESERT CAMPAIGN. ANOTHER BID FOR NILE DELTA EXPECTED. LONDON, August 12. The Cairo correspondent of “The Times” says that the lull at El Alamein, which has lasted for several weeks, is doubtless the calm before the storm. It is not to be expected that Rommel will dally while the rich Nile Delta and also Alexandria are almost within sight, without making another determined effort. The pause has been imposed on Rommel by the necessity to bring up reinforcements and supplies over long and difficult communications. The Italians and Germans, who lost heavily in lorries in June and July, are husbanding their vehicles and making great use of barges and lighters which, however, are being heavily punished by British and American bombers in the discharge ports and also while creeping along the coast. Explosions and fires nightly at Tobruk must greatly complicate the Axis supply problem. Recently-cap-tured German prisoners show that new drafts are either semi-trained boys or men over 40 from garrisons in Greece and Crete. ORDEAL FOR GERMANS DIFFICULT DEFENSIVE BATTLE. BROADCAST BY ROMMEL. LONDON, August 12. Speaking over the German radio Field-Marshal Rommel told of the ordeal of his troops in the Western Desert and said that the battle had been hard and had exacted many sacrifices from the Germans. “Many of our comrades are no longer fighting in our ranks,” he said. “We have had to wage a very difficult defensive battle after reaching the very gates of Egypt.” NIGHT ENCOUNTER NEW ZEALAND & GERMAN PATROLS. ENEMY BOMBARDMENTS AT MEAL TIMES. (Official War Correspondent, N.Z.E.F.) SOUTHERN SECTOR, El Alamein Line, August 10. A short, brisk battle between one of our infantry night patrols and a party of about 18 Germans they met near the enemy lines has been the only close fighting on the New Zealand sector of the front in the last 24 hours. Our patrol was creeping across no man’s land in front of its battalion lines when it came unexpectedly on the Germans who were making one of their rare night scouting trips. The New Zealanders threw grenades among the Germans and for a few seconds there was a furious exchange of explosives and machine-gun bullets. Other patrols were active all along our front, but they were not opposed. Fairly constant exchanges of artillery, fire have decreased today because of a dust storm that has swept the lines since early morning. Skirmishes between fighter patrols are becoming a daily occurrence over the New Zealand lines. Again this morning we had breakfast beneath the roar of planes diving toward each other and the crackle of their machine-guns. Two hurried attacks on. our forward positions have been the only daylight bombing raids the Germans have made on this sector for some time. Artillery is so regular with its shelling of our; positions at meal times that the bombardments are now known by the troops as the lunch programme and dinner music. “We would think something was wrong if he did not use a bit of ammunition every night,” an infantry sergeant said this morning when we spoke of the regularity of the German machine-gun fire across no man’s land each night. In spite of the enemy’s attempts, to stop our rations reaching the line, the troops in our forward positions never miss a meal. In most cases, two hot meals, often of fresh meat and vegetables, are taken up to the line daily.