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PRISONERS RELEASED

IN THE REOCCUPATION OF BENGHAZI AIR AND LAND OPERATIONS IN LIBYA. ALLIED FORCE ADVANCING FROM LAKE CHAD. LONDON, November 21. Benghazi has again been occupied by British troops and numbers of prisoners have been released, nymy of them Indians. An Allied army is reported to be moving northward from the Lake Chad district, probably in an attempt to cut the coastal road between El Agheila and Tripoli, says the Algiers radio. The Berlin News Agency states that the German and Italian tank army in Libya has now taken up positions which have been long prepared and reconstructed in considerable depth and also reinforced by the most modern tanks and guns. Reuter’s correspondent, in a dispatch from Cyrenaica, says British light armoured units made contact with enemy armoured cars, but no serious battle resulted. Rain and wind are sweeping the desert, but there is no slackening of the Eighth Army’s pursuit of the enemy.

TOLL OF AXIS SHIPS & PLANES. Bad flying conditions again interfered with air activity over Cyrenaica yesterday. Aerodromes in Sicily were successfully • bombed on Thursday night. A vessel of about 2000 tons was bombed and hit amidships and left on fire off the coast of Tunisia on Friday. It was later attacked by our , torpedo aircraft and left sinking. Another vessel was also attacked off Cape Bon and raked with cannon fire. Two Junkers 88s were shot down in the same area. From all these operations one of our aircraft did not return. Within the past few days Allied fighters have taken a heavy toll of the large transport aircraft which the enemy is using in a desperate effort to keep his retreating forces supplied with badly needed petrol. In one day seven Junkers 52s were destroyed m the air ,three on the ground and over a score of miscellaneous aircraft damaged by ground strafing. Most of these were large transport carriers loaded with petrol. South African Air Force squadrons secured the biggest bag on this occasion, shooting down six Junkers 525. They also on the same day destroyed three Junkers on the ground and damaged a number of Messerschmitt 109 s and Heinkel Ills on the ground. 1 A total of 550 German and Italian aircraft found on or around 120 captured landing grounds between Daba and Mekili were mostly destroyed but some were intact. . Benghazi harbour is unrecognisable after the repeated R.A.F. bombing, according to an R.A.F. pilot who returned to Cairo today. There is a sixty-foot gap along the eastern arm of the outer mole and another great gap on the western end of the southern mole. The pontoon bridge at the extreme end of the central mole had received direct hits. A ship in the harbour has been burning for four days, and the oil depot tanks have been demolished. There has been no great change in the town itself.

ABANDONED ITALIANS. • ' The fate of six crack Italian divisions in the Western Desert—Pavia, Brescia, Bologna, Ariete, Trento and Folgore—is well pictured by a correspondent broadcasting from the Middle East At the beginning of the offensive they suffered heavy casualties, and as soon as the break-through occurred they found themselves abandoned by the Germans. The plight of these divisions was unhappy ,as they trudge back on foot across the arid waste without water or adequate food, it was not long before they were filthy and lice-ridden and there was hardly one not suffering from some ailment. No wonder they were rounded up in hundreds by the advancing British and Greeks. Many died of exposure and only an infinitesimal fraction managed to get away altogether. The six divisions were virtually written oil, and a Northumbrian brigade which had pursued them took only between 75 and 80 Germans.

MANY HITS ON TARGETS AT TRIPOLI AND BIZERTA. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10 a.m. ) RUGBY, November 22. This morning’s Middle East communique states that in the latest bombing raid on Tripoli direct hits were scored on moles and warehouses, where recurrent explosions were accompanied by fires. A partially sunk merchant vessel was seen on lire in the harbour. The communique adds: “Bad weather

again hindered flying over Cyrenaica. “Our medium .bombers attacked the airfield at Bizerta on Friday night and set fire to workshops, hangars and barracks. Two German aircraft were shot down off Tunisia on November 20 and 21, and a flak ship was damaged. All our aircraft returned.”

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WAITA19421123.2.23.5

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 November 1942, Page 3

Word count
Tapeke kupu
735

PRISONERS RELEASED Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 November 1942, Page 3

PRISONERS RELEASED Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 November 1942, Page 3

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