DECEPTIVE LULL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 September 1942, Page 3

DECEPTIVE LULL

ON THE EGYPTIAN FRONT BOTH SIDES PREPARING BUSILY. TIME OF GOOD WEATHER NEAR. LONDON, September 20. Official reports from the Middle East give the impression of a continued lull on the front. A correspondent points out that the present activities are not the sort that find their way into communiques. Preparations for the next battle are being made by both sides. In the two weeks since their retirement, no doubt the German Afrika Korps has been reinforcing and regrouping its forces and getting its supplies into shape. British reinforcements are coming along steadily and there arc signs that the desert forces are attaining a striking strength that they have never had before. “Watch the weather.” the correspondent states. “It is now gelling cooler and this means that good campaigning weather is on the way.”

POSITIONS CHANGED

REGROUPING OF ENEMY DIVISIONS. DEMEANOUR OF ITALIAN TROOPS. CAIRO, September 19. The official war correspondent with the A.I.F. in Egypt says there are signs that the enemy is in process of shifting his weight from the deep south, where his recent thrust was frustrated, to the direction of the area that is held by the A.I.F. This move was made partly behind smoke-screens in an attempt to. disguise its significance. As a result it is believed that one German armoured division now faces the Australian positions, with another armoured division farther back to the south. The infantry opposite the A.I.F. are mixed German and Italian units, with the Italians carefully sandwiched between Germans to keep their minds on the job, for which it is daily becomingmore evident that they have little relish. One Italian prisoner who was taken by an Australian partol this week tried to coax the patrol to go on farther to collect another 100 of his mates: he felt they would be chagrined to find that they had been left out of a good thing. While returning, the patrol discovered a large enemy party which had worked behind them, and was between their positions and themselves. When the enemy challenged, the Italian prisoner eagerly announced the password, and the Australians passed through unhindered. The Italian’s greatest fear apparently was that he would be recaptured by the Germans.