The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-06-29
Rsport from Cairo


 Cairo, June 2o-CUP)-Axis desert tank coluns led by luftwaffe bonib- CTS by-passed the main British base at MatTuh which Berlin said was captured) in wild battle of en- cifclement for control of western Egypt and the 160-mile road to the Alexandria naval base.
 Allied boinbers and flghter-bonb- CTS were steadily i1ammering at the Axis advance units and supply lines over the weekend, starting large fires and causing much damage. At one time smoke columns rose over a ] 50-nile front area as a result of RAP attacks. Nazi bombers raided Alexandria.
 With dominance of the eastern Mediterranean at stake, Nazi Field Marshal Erwin Rommel threw his main mechanized forces and self propelling SS-millimeter cannon in- to the bottleneck south of Matruh and battered eastward in drive to cut the road to Alexandria and en- circle the British base.
 (Axis communiques from Berlin and Rome said that Matruh had been encircled and captured this morning and that 5000 British prisoners had been taken. The Nazi columns are pursuing the beaten enemy" eastward on the road to Alexandria, these communiques < frlaimed.)
 (London had no definite informa- { eion that Matrull had fallen but 1t was suggested there that the Brit fsh might have withdrawn to form defense in depth designed to ex- haust and halt Rommel's advance0
 Today's British communique said only that wild battles were in pro- gress south and southeast of Ma truth, but a dispatch filed Sunday by United Press Correspondent ] Richard D. McMillan at the front , said that the Nazis had pushed through the British defenses south east of Matruh and were driving toward a point on the coastal road IS miles east of that base.
 British 25.pounders and armored units formed screen protecting this road but the Germans had cap- Eured the town of Garawla and were making progress all day Sunday in ! swirling dust storms along the coastal plain and below the rugged escarpment to the south.
 The dispatch showed, however, that the fighting was going against the British, who were fighting a de. . laying action rather than making any major counter-thrusts.
 A Comrnunique of the Middle Eastern high command said that heavy fighting continued yesterday southwest and southeast of Matruh between the British mobile forces and the heavy armored forces whcih Z Inc Axis hurled at their line.
 Fighting covered very large area, the British communique said, and no details were available.
 Alexandria Raided
 Ak planes raided Alexandria this morning, the ministry of interior announced, but added that only @ fe wbombs were dropped and that damage was slight.
 As the German and British main bodies clashed finally in battle on the Matruh line, l60 miles from Alexandria, the British Eighth Army suddenly switched from its long adherence to static defense to tactics of offensive defense.
 Innurnerable battles in the desert between highly mobile British tank and armored car columns and the Axis formations ragged all over the desert between Matruh, on the coast. and a point south of Hamza, 22 miles inland.
 The front still was in 8 fluid state, but the enemy now was at tempting to smash through the cen- ter of the British line, between Mat ruh and Hamza.
 (Axis reports said that the Ger mans and Italians had cut through to the coast IS 1-2 miles east of Matruh, thus technically encircling Matruh. There was nothing to con- tradict this in British reports, but is did not follow that Matruh had been isolated because apparently the forces which made the sweep were light.
 (London still was silent on South African report, apparently of mnwwwwwN (NRwwR WRAN