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FEATURES OF BATTLE

INTENSE & CONCENTRATED STRUGGLE NO EARLY DECISION EXPECTED CASUALTIES MAY BE HEAVY ON BOTH SIDES. EFFORT AND AIM OF EIGHTH ARMY. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 11.5 a.m.) RUGBY, October 26. A 8.8. C. observer with the Eighth Army has cabled a survey of the fighting during the past two days and three nights. Though it is not possible to give details of the exact parts of the front where the heaviest fighting has taken place, there are, naturally, says the correspondent, certain zones where the Allied offensive has penetrated more deeply than others. The operations cover the whole front, and are not limited to one sector only, as was the last German offensive of some weeks ago. The correspondent warns against expecting an early decision in the battle. “So far the main points that seem to be emerging from the news are continuous artillery fire, infantry attacks, and the fact that although yesterday there were armoured clashes, there as yet has been nothing in the nature of a major tank battle,” he says. "The encounter seems to be taking on more of the aspect of a battle of the last war than anything we have seen out here so far. There are, however, no continuous trench lines as in the last war, but there is something distinctly reminiscent about aerial preparations, intense artillery fire and infantrymen advancing to make a gap for tanks, rather than tanks doing it for them. The Eighth Army is fighting its way up a gradually widening corridor, and on the scale of the present battle it is bound to be a highly concentrated affair, at least until Mersa Matruh is reached. For the same reason, casualties must be expected on both sides —maybe heavy casualties — before there is a decision, and all the indications so far suggest that casualties have both been suffered and inflicted.

“Yesterday enemy air activity in the battle area was rather heavier than before, and there has been some bombing of our troops by Stukas, but that does not mean that there has been any slackening in the supremacy the R.A.F. holds over the Luftwaffe.” FIGHTING FRENCH STRONG FORCE WITH EIGHTH ARMY. INCLUDING VETERANS OF BIR HACHEIM. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.22 a.m.) RUGBY, October 26. The French forces with the Eighth Army are the largest yet to participate in Allied operations in the Western Desert. They are commanded by General De Larminat. Units under General Koenig, the defender of Bir Hacheim have already engaged the enemy in one sector in the present advance. General Koenig’s men, who suffered severe losses at Bir Hacheim, have since been reinforced. Marines, composed mainly of Bretons, Parisians and Foreign Legionaries, form the backbone of General Koenig’s force. NAVY’S PART IN THE MEDITERRANEAN CAMPAIGN. MANY AXIS SUPPLY SHIPS SUNK. (Received This Day, 10.22 a.m.) RUGBY, October 22. The Navy’s part in the Mediterranean campaign is outstanding. During the last recorded series of attacks four British submarines sank five Italian supply ships, probably sank a destroyer and an armed merchant cruiser and damaged five other ships. This brought the total of Axis supply ships sunk or damaged in the Mediterranean by submarines during October to 24, of which fourteen were sunk. ALLIED AIR POWER ITALY’S CAUSE FOR DREAD. (Received This Day, 10.22 a.m.) RUGBY, October 26. Discussing Allied air superiority, the “Daily Telegraph” says: "By the confession of the Nazi leaders, the Luftwaffe cannot yet be moved from the, Russian front even to defend the Reich. The Allied offensive which has pounded the Nazi war machine is delivering daily and nightly attacks on the arsenals at Genoa, Milan and Turin, and the oil depots and harbours from which the Axis army in Libya draws its sustenance. Fascism, with its industries battered and its labour power wasted on Desert campaigns, must call on Nazism for help, only to find Nazism in such a plight that it has nothing to spare for its satellites. The Duce keeps this week the anniversary of his march in Rome twenty years ago. Turin, Milan and Genoa will celebrate a hungry feast in dust and ashes and the rest of Italy in dread.”

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WAITA19421027.2.27

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 October 1942, Page 3

Word count
Tapeke kupu
697

FEATURES OF BATTLE Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 October 1942, Page 3

FEATURES OF BATTLE Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 October 1942, Page 3

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