The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-01-06

lmpOSSlDle TOT the Italians CO sleep Airplanes flew overhead, spotting guns in the defense area. The one big Italian naval gun, "Bardia Bill, was soon knocked out. Italian air. planes did not appear. They had been absent since Dec. 26, when two of them were shot down.
 In battle dress and steel helmets with rifles and hand grenades, the Australians went lover the top"-a purely technical phrase as they started out on level desert sand-as the tanks advanced. Ahead of them went engineers, to cut the barbed wire.
 The British artillery laid down a heavy creeping barrage ahead of the advance. But the engineers were soon under heavy fire. AS one of them went down, another stepped up and took on his job of shipping the wire.
 Worked in Dark
 During the darkness before the zero hour, the engineers had blown up the formidable Italian tank ditch at selected points.
 Working noiselessly and quickly they filled in paths across the ditch with the sand they had blown up.
 Occasionally the fire became too hot, and engineers and infantry were ordered to halt. AS soon as they did, a cruiser tank would lum- Der up, wheel toward the Italian lines and open fire with its cannon at Italian machine gun and sniper nests.
 Over the paths across the tank ditch, the tanks advanced and smashed the Italian perimeter forts surrounding Bardia.
 Other tanks advanced between the forts, with infantry close behind them.
 As the Australians reached the main defense line, from fort after fort went up the white flag. Only few held out.
 The advance was halted for the night, while the bombardment kept up mercilessly, and was started dSdl11 OdLu1 lldy 444O1A44A1Ss
 All during the day Saturday, Brit ish Lysander bombing planes es- corted by eight-gun fighters kept complete mastery of the sky, spot ting Italian defense positions.
 Zero Hour Saturday
 The zero hour for the final attack was 4 D. m. Saturday. The tanks clanked forward, the infantrymer with them. Bardia was silent. Hali an hour later the first tank entered the burning town. There had moi been a single shot, and not an Ital- ian had appeared in street or g window.
 Then there was a sputter of rifles fire from snipers in windows and or rooftops and burst of machine gur fire from the tower of the principa mosque.
 The infantrymen moved out witt hand grenades and the bayonet anc this last flare of resistance soor ended.
 Five hundred prisoners were talk en within few minutes in the toWl and another 800 in the dock area. Thousands of the Italians had re- treated northWard to the corner oi the coast.
 Began to Surrender Now the Italians began Hooking out into the streets to surrender.
 One officer. armed with revolver and seven of his men with rifles slung on their shoulders, captured a single group of 2,00o men who had been concealed in caves whict the British said would have beer most costly to take. The Italian com mandant appeared at the entrance to one cave. His men filed out anc threw down their rifles. We crossed the no mans land be- fore Bardia immediately behind the attacking forces. A great artillery duel was still in progress. Australian and British batteries were still ham mering the Italians as we started out So successful had been the British secret concentration of troops that many Italian guns shelled empty stretches of desert.
 Going along the Fort Capuzzo-