Evening star., 1940-12-16
Everything for Army
Captured by British
From Italians
Material Taken in Egypt
Declared Double Total
Used in Own Drive
By EDWARD KENNEDY,

Associated Press War Correspondent
WITH THE BRITISH FORCES
AT SIDI BARRANI, Egypt, Dec. Is
Here lies the wreckage of Benito
Mussolini's ambitious plans for the
conquest of Egypt.
In this village, where the desert
meets the sea and the Italians
made their main stronghold in the
strip of Egypt they occupied as a
starting point for their invasion,
and for miles around it. are strewn
enormous quantities of Italian sup
plies.
Vehicles. from carts to f1ve-ton
-trucks. some of them intact and
some wrecked, are lined up through
the desert. Guns of all sizes, tanks,
srmored cars, countless cases OF
munitions and machinery. vast food
stocks-everything a mocern army
needs-are here and il British
hands.
tThe British government an
nounced capture of Sid Barram
Wednesday night, after three
days of fighting)
Astonished at Amount.
British officers said they were as
tonished at the amount Of supplies
the Italians had brought in. 1t
greatly exceeded their estimates.
The total material captured In
Egypt is more than double that
prit ich n the
Fascists out of the country, they
said.
Much of this already has been
put into service by the British,
mainly for the staggering job Of
feeding and transporting the end
less lines of prisoners (ot which the
British said Saturday there were
more than 10000. The rest is being
storted out.
On the shore are two plants for
distilling sea water, housed in tents
big enough to cover a three-rlng
circus.
In the three months they occupied
the region the italians planted
water pipe lines along the 7O-mlle
strip of desert and built roads, forti-
fcations and camps. All this was
labor lost, for the strip now has oeen
wrested from them by the numer-
ically weaker British forces.
Nibeiwa Key to Victory.
NibeiUa, Is miles south Of Sidi
Barrani, fell in an hour OF tlghtlng
Monday morning and this was the
kew to victory. A captured Italian
officer told me the fighting on this
circular plateau, taken by surprise,
was "the nearest thing to hell ever
seen on this earth"
So great was the surprise that
Fascist tanks never even got into
action. Italian Gen. Pietro Maletti
tried to rally his picked forces for
a counterattack, but he fell with
bullet in his chest and died soon
after the British reached him.
Horses stampeded in the camp,
British tanks raced around inside
with guns blazing, British artillery
was spraying Italian trenches and
British infantry roared in with
rifles and machine guns firing and
bayonets flashing. The Italian sur
render was inevitable. Not man
escaped.
Then the British went on to take
the east and west forts at Tum-
Mar. where stronger resistance, in
cluding counter attack by II
tanks, was encountered but over
come. That night the tired British
fighters bivouacked in the desert be-
tween here and Tum-Mar.
Outnumbered to l.
While they rested the fleet shelled
Sidi Barrani throughout the night,
giving the Italians a previeW OF
what was to come.
With the dawn the British column
made up entirely of English and
Scottish egiments-sJarted for Sidl
Barrani with tanks leading the way.
TWo-thirdS of a mile south of the
town they came under the fire of
italians entrenched on ridge. The
Fascist forces-two legions of Black
shirts and a division of Libyans-
outnumbered the attacking British
about four to one.
time since another unit had cut
through to the coast west of the
town and another had just taken
Maktila on the coast 10 miles to
the east-but the attacking troops
did not know this.
After seven hours Of hard fighting,
in which the British said the Black
shirts fought well and inflicted con-
siderable casualties the British drove
them back and took the ridge at
2 pm.
When We got on the ridge we
saw the town and the blue sea
behind it and this gave us con-
fdence," an officer said
Gives Credit to r. A. F.
"But the tanks left us to make a
flank attack on the Italians, so we
had less protection.
1--WE owe lot to the r. A. F.
They kept enemy planes off us for
most of the time.
Then a terrible duststorm came
up and it was blessing as the
dust made us invisible to the enemy
at 200 yards.
Outfousht and weary, various
italian detachments began to give
in and by nightfall the village
was in the hands of the British,
though many groups remained to
be rounded up.
The final cleanup came Wednes-
day when British column march
ing westward along the coast ar
rived after having taken Maktlla
against strong resistance.
Wednesday Gen. Gallino, Italian
corps commander for Egypt, who
was captured with his staff, asked
permission to address his troops
and in a pathetic speech thanked
his men for their struggle.