TAKEN IN OPENING PHASE OF DESERT BATTLE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 October 1942, Page 3

TAKEN IN OPENING PHASE OF DESERT BATTLE

Later Fighting of Local Character POSITIONS WRESTED FROM ENEMY RETAINED LARGE-SCALE ALLIED AIR ATTACKS CONTINUED LONDON, October 26. The opposing armoured forces in Egypt have been engaged in local clashes. There is no news of any big tank battle. The British troops have held firmly all the positions won. “Yesterday fighting continued, and there were a_ number of minor engagements in which armoured units were on both sides,’’ states today’s joint communique from the Middle East headquarters. “The enemy was unable to dislodge our troops from the areas already gained. \ “Up to 6 p.m. yesterday 1450 German and Italian prisoners had been taken. . , “Large-scale Allied air attacks continued over the battle area during Saturday night and yesterday. Throughout the day the battle area was patrolled by our fighters. There was an increase in enemy air activity, but our pilots shot down a least seven enemy aircraft and damaged more over the battle Correspondents state that there has not been anything in the nature of a major tank battle. In the southern sector the attack penetrated more deeply than m the others. It is not yet possible to say where the fighting was heaviest, but the operations cover the whole front. The fighting has taken on more of the aspects of the battles of the last war than anything seen in Egypt so far, though actually it is very different from anything m the last war. There is no continuous trench line. An intense artillery barrage opened up the way for the infantry to make a gap for tanks rather than the tanks making a gap for the infantry. The tackling of the extensive minefields laid by the enemy and covered by fire is no light task, especially in daylight. The enemy has somewhat increased his bombing, but so far it has *been nothing compared with the Allied air onslaught, which continues on a tremendous scale. There is complete co-opera-tion between the air forces and the army. It is revealed that in yesterday’s operations m the battle area, when seven enemy planes were shot down and many more damaged, four of the enemy planes were destroyed by United States pilots. All but one of the American successes were gained soon after dawn over the El Daba landing ground. Over the sea, long-range bombers attacked a merchantman and her escorting destroyer west of Tobruk. Later in the day, South African light bombers blew up the merchantman. Four enemy planes were also destroyed in this operation and four more—troop and supply carriers—in an attack on a large formation 80 miles north of Tobruk.