PRESSING ONWARD

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 December 1942, Page 3

PRESSING ONWARD

BRITISH EIGHTH ARMY Now 150 Miles West of El Agheila NEW FLANK MOVEMENT MANY ENEMY FORCES ESCAPE FROM TRAP LONDON, December 20. The British Eighth Army is now 150 miles west of El Agheila, more than a third of the way to Tripoli. There is still no sign of the enemy making a stand. The enemy seems to be relying’ on minefields to hold up the advance of the land forces but he cannot delay the R.A.F., which is roaring over the enemy all the time. The few enemy aircraft which have appeared have been brushed aside. Long-range fighters shot down four big’ Axis planes on their way to Tripoli yesterday. In all operations three Allied planes were lost. More Axis forces west of Wadi Matratin, 60 miles beyond El Agheila, may be cut off as a result of a new flanking movement similar to that which forced Rommel’s rearguard to fight between Wadi Matratin and Marble Arch, says the Cairo correspondent of the British United Press. The Eighth Army is hotly pursuing the rearguards which forced their way out of General Montgomery’s trap at Wadi Matratin. Thousands of Germans escaped the Eighth Army’s encircling movement under cover of darkness when they threw their armour against a point between two Allied brigades, and pushed through by sheer weight. Morocco radio says that the Eighth Army’s vanguard is 20 miles from Sirte. «