ATTACK ON JALO

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 September 1942, Page 4

ATTACK ON JALO

TEXT OF ITALIAN REPORT. NO NEWS YET IN LONDON. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.45 a.m.) LONDON, September 22. A five-day attack by British forces in the Libyan Desert, 500. miles west of the main British lines in Egypt, is reported, in an Italian communique. Fighting occurred at the Jalo Oasis, 230 miles east-south-east of Benghazi. The communique says: “The. Italian garrison at Jalo was attacked at dawn on September 16 by numerically superior motorised and armoured forces, coming in from the direction of the Sahara. Bitter fighting took place. The initial attack was repulsed and, supported by artillery fire, the resistance of the garrison was firmly and tenaciously maintained on the following day. The defence was also strongly supported by the repeated intervention Of Italian and German air units, which inflicted heavy losses in men and materials on the enemy. Fighting continued until yesterday, when Axis motorised columns sent to reinforce the garrison came on the scene. The enemy forces disengaged and retreated towards the south, pursued and hammered by. Axis planes.” . There is no information in London about this reported operation.