4
THE CHINA MAIL, APRIL 3, 1941.
Fiercest Fighting Of African War Before Asmara Fell
(By Reuter's Special Correspondent with the
British Forces in Eritrea, from Asmara) TRAINS HIS
IT TOOK THREE MONTHS OF THE FIERCEST FIGHTING OF THE WAR IN AFRICA TO REACH ASMARA, CAPITAL OF ITALY'S
TROOPS TO
OLDEST COLONY. THE CITY STANDS ON A SHUN SLEEP
GREAT 7,000-FEET HIGH PLATEAU, PRO- TECTED ON ALL SIDES BY DIMINISHING RANGES OF HILLS,
Our troops advanced more than 250 miles across country designed for defence, stubbornly pushing back an enemy more than twice their number.
are
renowned
The Italians had an advantage through native troops used to the country. They fighters but their spirit was brok- en at Keren by the stubbommess of the British and Indians.
Between Keren and Asmara the Italian High Command ap- peared to pin its faith on the crack Savoy other
white
NECK BROKEN- LIVED 3 YEARS
So fit were men of the Royal Ulster Rifles and the South Lancashires, who have just taken part in infantry manoeuvres, that they carried on from the morning of the attack until the afternoon two days afterwards without sleep.
And they went through the next day on the small amount of food in their haversacks.
That, said the corps command- ON THE VIC- AN INQUEST
der, was the only way to train A Grenadiers and TIM OF
ROAD ACCIDENT
men nowadays →→ so that they OCCURRED freshly WHICH
THREE
could go forty-eight hours with- YEARS AGO IS TO BE HELD AT out sleep or rest except for what
troops
brought from Addis Ababa, but these quickly crumpled before BRIGHTON, the dash and determination of our forces.
That the Eritrean campaign has been virtually terminated before the rains come is due to the tre- mendous energy of the general commanding the operation who, although he drove his troops hard, never found response lacking.
Signal Feats
For the greater part of
the time our men were fighting on the top of steep hills two, three and four thousand feet high.. yet they always were plentifully supplied with water.
All whom I asked said rations were astonishingly good.
The Signal extraordinary
Corps performed feats throughout the campaign. During the Battle of Keren alone they laid 300 miles of wire, keeping it in order over ground constantly swent by ma- chine-gun fire and mortars.
Sappers were also unusually prominent since rapid advance depended upon the speed with which they cleared the numer- ous blocks in the road.
At all but one of these blocks
they could snatch at odd moments. "The soldier," he said, "must be. physically, mentally and mili- tarily fit to carry out his tasks. otherwise it's no good going to
For three years John Richard- son, engineer, of New York Stree', Brighton, who has just died, aged twenty-four, lay on his back par-war. alysed and unable to move.
His neck was broken by a fall from his motor-cycle in a country lane in Sussex.
After spending two Christmases in hospital he asked to be taken
Brighton. hume
to
For nearly eighteen months his mother was his day and night nurse.
He chatted cheerily with friends who went in to read to him every day.
LETTERS TO PRISONERS
He has carried his system of training to the point of insisting that every man in his command, from general to private, shall do a seven-mile cross-country run every week.
"It's Knowing How"
"It pumps the tobacco out of their bellows," he said. "It pumps the gin out of the young officer too much disposed to the 'Let's have the other half' sort of thing." About 25,000 men and 3,500 vehicles took part in the manoeu-
vres.
The success of the general's training methods were evident. Men in the middle of their third day's operations without sleep looked little more than jaded and were still able to go for. ward without any trouble. Said the general: "There is no- thing impossible, - nothing im- The staff of the International possible, if only you know how. Red Cross, which before the war But you must know how." totalled 400 voluntary workers, And the troops under him cer-
Three million letters and post- cards have so für been forwarded to prisoners of war of all belliger- ents, according to a report of the Red Cross at Geneva,
they had to work under thre, yet, has been increased to 40,000, states tainly do. they cleared them within 12 hours.
Grenadiers Destroyed
In breaking through the fourth road bluck encountered, our troops destroyed a battalion of Savoy Grenadiers.
Our armoured vehicles advanc- ed along the road to Asmara, In- dian troops ranged over the hills on both sides, pushing the Italians off the heights, and simultaneous- ly another mobile force advanc- ed down the railway six miles to the south. Capitulation of the capital was the sequel.--Reuter,
THE POLITE POLE
The Poles are noted for their politeness, Their greeting is al- wats accompanied by a bow. It is quite impossible to induce one of them to precede you through ́a door.
At a certain bomber station
there were a number of Poles
who were certainly no less polite
་
GERMANS FEEL POWER OF NEW TYPES OF BOMB
JUST OVER a year ago the first British bomb was dropped on German territory. It fell on the seaplane base on the island of Sylt, on March 18, 48 hours after the first German bombing attack was made on British soil. Nazi bombs had been dropped on the Ork- neys, causing a number of civilian casualties.
Second stage in Britain's counter bomb- ing of Germany consisted of attacks by the RAF. on military lines of communication in western Germany.
been
than their compatriots. The climax. These attacks begun on May 11, Faster and bigger bombers and; came one day when a section of 1940, and closely followed the Luft- crews to man them have the British pilots were setting off waffe's bombing of Calais, in pouring from Britain's factories on a mission that was generally-which-many civilians were killed and training schools, augmented known to be exceptionally hazar-and injured and which heralded by the growing resources of the dous.
the German offensive in the west. Empire. The rising flood is now Since thosa first attacks, further swollen by supplies of which resembled the prelimin aircraft from America. Ary sparring of a pair of boxers, Recently the Prime Minister was the weight and tempo of bomb-Jable to promise that the adverse ing on both eldes have grown.. balance of bombing under which "God pickle you, gentlemen," he Handicapped at the outset with Britain fought would presently be said.
numerical inferiority, the R.A.F. altered, to the British advantage, The English language is full of had to adopt a policy which ensure and for some time past the R.A.F. pitfalls, and perhaps not the leasted that its necessarily lighter has been using some of the big- of them concerns the words punches, each landed where it gest and fastest borbers in the "pickle" and "préserve."!~~
As they left the mess they found the Poles drawn up at the door. Their spokesman had in his hand an English dictionary. He stepped forward,
R.A.F OFFICER FOUND SHOT
Flying Officer Basil le Gay -Jones/ forty-one, of "Newmarkot Road, Cambridge, was found shot. at his home. A revolver was by:
would hurt most
T
world...
In a fight between a cruiser HIGH EXPLOSIVE BOMBS OF weight and a heavyweight it is A SIZE AND WEIGHT EQUAL the heavier who can do the slog- TO ANYTHING: "DROPPED BY ging. The lighter man, to win, THE NAZIS FIND TARGETS IN must fight with his brain.
Changing Picture
THE GERMAN CAPITAL AND ELSEWHERE AND, AS DIS- CLOSED. IN THE LAST FEW DAYS, NEW TYPES OF BOMB But things have been changing. WITH AN INCREASED EXPLO
"ARE ALSO BEING USED-BRITISH WIRELESS, S
his eldes taken to hospital, but mament, which the Nazis hold has WEIGHT
*The four years lend in air rear- SIVE EFFECT FOR THEIR
was
died soon after,
been gradually reduced.
Couldn't keep my dye.
on the ball to-day!
Page
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