The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-01-23

ing Italian cruiser San Glol which is sending a shower of
 With one more hour of daylight, the Australian infantrymen who led the final attack on Tobruk with British tanks and machine gunners in support would have taken TobruK today, one day ahead of schedule. As 1t is, they are huddling in the narrow dry stream beds and holes in the snuff colored cliffs, over looking the flaming harbor. await ing the order to attack at dawn.
 I have passed. on my way here, seemingly interminable lines of 1tal- ian prisoners. Thousands of them have surrendered today and the total taken since the Libyan offensive began December is approaching 100000
 Surrendered to Writer
 Walking actually in advance of the infantry, along with group of other correspondents, 24 Italians in- sisted upon surrendering to me along with their first class Diesel motor truck and drove with them along the road to the last stream bed of the British positions, within rifle fire of Tobruk.
 AsI write, some Italians are hold ing out west of Tobrllk amidst the ruin and wreckage of the charred, scared battle ground. Crews of half dozen naval guns are among the holdouts, in fort on the other side of the city behind the radio mastS. They are firing at the Brit ish gunners who are hammering at them, and intend to start a pig bambardment at dawn.
 The Australians could have taken Tobruk tonight, but brigadier of their forces, World War hero, told me that they were halted to keep down their casualties. Tobruk. as arrived, was a shining citadel, with its fine harbor it's modern hotels and dwellings and its up to date streets.
 Sunken ships lay about the har- bor. Oil and gasoline dumps, n flames, poured smoke over the sky. AS night fell. there were hundreds of spurts of flame in the surround ing hills and on the plateau as the British and Australian guns ham, nlered the Italian holdouts.
 Th4y have been firing without a break for more than 12 hours. It is one of the biggest cannonades by British guns, if not the biggest, since the last war.
 Tobruk Looked Empty
 Tolruk looks very empty. Occas- ionally an Italian car risks a jour ney to the west of Tobruk under the ayes of the British perched overlooking the town.
 British engineers opened the final attack this morning by blowing up Italinn barbed wire and an incom- pletes tank ditch. The ditch was only six inches deep.
 The artillery barrage started at 5:3O a. m. The Italians, we found out later, were driven under ground. They replied feebly and only a few nests gave trouble.
 Under the fire of their guns, the Australians and the British ma chine gunners and tanks moved up through a haze of smoke, dust and desert mist to a narrow gap m the Italian barbed wire.
 Infantry, tanks, and machine gum nerS moved to the edge ot No Mans Land. At 8:30 a. m., the zero hour, they moved off across the cold sand and went through the barbed wire gap.
 They moved out fanwise as soon as they penetrated the wire. l moved with them. One party swung to the west to clean up isolated forts and machine gun nests. An other swung to the east. A third speeded straight ahead.
 As followd the tanks, the first prisoners began coming back. There were 5000 in the first group. Then came another of several hundreds.
 Easier Than Bardia
 It was evident that Tobruk was to fall easier than had Bardia, back at the Libyan frontier. By 10 a. m. the empire force had made six miles and was two hours ahead of program.
 The outer defenses of Tobruk, about 71s miles from town, had con sisted of double ring of stone built camps surrounded by barbed wire, well defended by anti-tank and heavy and light machine guns. Land mines lay all around the camps.
 The inner defenses consisted of 8 ring of concrete pill boxes, sur- rounded by wire also. These con- tained 6 number of naval type guns, firing six inch sells and mounted on caterpillar tractors.
 The British tanks had raced around the outer forts, their can non and Bren guns blazing, and had Silenced them.
 Starting out at the run with bay enets fixed, the main Australian force had marched three or four miles to the crossroads of the Bar dia-Tobruk and Fl Adeln-T Tobruk roads and there had silenced the naval guns.
 This spearhead thrust through the second and final line of defenses.
 The attacking forces halted to draw breath under the blazing sun esad resumed their three -pronged thrust at 2 p. m.
 As the western prong went west ward over the escarpment which dominated Tobruk, the middle group busied itself with cleaning up islets of resistance in its path and the third swung down to the Mediter- ranean and then switched along the coast until it captured the airdrome.
 British Plane Down
 In the midst of the battle we passed . British bombing plane that had been shot down earlier in the attack on Tobruk, and the graves of three men of its crew.
 As I continued behind the tanks I passed an Australian signal corps man who was reading letter from home.
 This Is a lovely war" he said. sfFsI1o1t Mxyov, rlAliya,. p,e 1a4farc In <Ian