RAPID MOVEMENT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 November 1942, Page 3

RAPID MOVEMENT

IN LIBYA & TUNISIA MANY IMPORTANT DETAILS VEILED. NO CONFIRMATION OF ADVANCE FROM LAKE CHAD. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.45 a.m.) RUGBY, November 19. The continued success of the British pursuit in Libya is shown by the mention of contact with the enemy south of Benghazi. Evidently a column, moving inland, through Hakeim, Mekil and Msus, has made rapid progress and seems likely to reach the coastal area round about Soluk. No mention has been made of contact with the enemy along the coast north-east-of Benghazi. Any enemy forces which were in that area may have been cut off by the rapidity of the British advance, but this is not taken for granted. So far the pace and pressure of the pursuit have been maintained to a remarkably satisfactory degree. The speed of the chase has far outstripped any before known, even in the desert. . The Eighth Army staff has had to perform a difficult task in keeping contact with the enemy, without letting their own light advanced forces suffer a check. The maintenance of contact and cutting •off the retreat of the defeated forces is : particularly arduous when the enemy’s i sole objective is—as it evidently is at | present—to escape and abandon the en- | tire province. Operations in Tunisia are still veiled in secrecy, but it is clear that both sides are pouring in forces, by every available means, into the province. In the circumstances there can be no definite dividing line between the two sides, especially as both are likely to , be aiming first and foremost at the occupation of such strategic points as aerodromes, ports and junctions. A further element of uncertainty in the rapidly moving situation is the attitude of the French garrisons and authorities at each place, on which much depends. Reports that Allied forces are advancing from the Chad territory are unconfirmed . The nature of the country and the enormous distances involved make it unlikely that any substantial forces are operating on the southern frontiers of Libya. It is 900 miles from Fort Lamy, near Lake Chad, to Kufra or Murzuk, in Libya, and a further 500 from Kufra to El Agheila, or from

Murzuk to Tripoli. Nevertheless the commander of the Fighting French troops in the Sahara, General Le Clerc, is .known to be extremely enterprising and his men in the past have been able to make daring raids, deep into Italian territory.

SECOND AERODROME CAPTURE IN TUNISIA REPORTED. THOUSANDS OF FRENCH TROOPS JOIN AMERICANS. LONDON, November 18. Correspondents’ dispatches still do not reveal the strength and depth of the Allied penetration of Tunisia. The British paratroops who were dropped deep into Tunisia on Monday have made contact with the enemy, and it is believed they have now captured a second aerodrome. French troops warmly received the American air troops who dropped on an aerodrome near the Algerian-Tunis-ian border.

Reports reaching the Allied headquarters state that thousands of French North African soldiers have joined the Americans who are marching from Morocco and from the Oran area and other points in Algeria to Tunisia.

The Paris radio says that French colonial troops co-operating with the Axis in the resistance to the Allied advance in Tunisia have already clashed with the enemy in the south.

ENEMY MATERIAL TURNED TO GOOD ACCOUNT BY NEW ZEALANDERS. GENERAL ALEXANDER’S PRAISE. (Official War Correspondent, N.Z.E.F.) CAIRO, November 18. General Alexander at his Rress conference today paid a tribute to the Dominion troops for their enterprise in the quick use of captured enemy material. New. Zealanders, Australians, and South Africans, by virtue of the lives they led back home, had learned to be dependent upon themselves, he said. In the present operations they had used to good purpose much of the captured material, including anti-tank guns, machine-guns, and anti-aircraft guns. The congratulations of the New Zealand Returned Services’ Association to the Second New Zealand Division on its outstanding work in the Battle of Egypt were forwarded yesterday by the Dominion President, Mr Perry, M.L.C., to Lieutenant-General Freyberg. At the beginning of this month Mr Perry cabled to General Freyberg stating that the association was keenly following the progress of the battle, and members knew that .the New Zealand Division would more than maintain the great traditions it had already made. Yesterday he cabled: “New Zealand Returned Services’ Association knew its confidence in the division would be justified. Even our expectations have been surpassed. The division has given Rommel bad shocks before, but now he knows what a real mobile New Zealand earthquake is like. Well played all.”