Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1942-11-03
Infantry Advances
Is Miles Into Axis
Defense Zone
BY EDWARD KENNEDY,

Associated Press War Correspondent.
CAIRO, Nov. 3.-British tanks
in force have clashed with Field
Marshal Erwin Rommel's vaunt-
ed African Corps in the biggest
tank battle of the 11-day-old
Allied drive in Egypt, with fight
ing swirling around Tel Ell Aka
kir-the Hill of Wicked Men
where the British infantry as
sault has knitted 16 miles into
the Axis defense zone.
(Reuters reported that Berlin
broadcast attributed to DNB said
1t. Gen. B. L. Montgomery had
thrown some 500 tanks into "the
greatest tank battle of the whole
African campaign."D
The British 9Th Army announced
that many of the enemy surrendered
in one sector following a fierce
bombardment of Axis positions by
American and British planes.
The scene is one of the highest
points along the center of the pres
ent tight-hemmed battle zone be-
tween the Mediterranean and the
Qattara salt marshes.
1t is Is miles beyond the long
stabilized line through the ridges
southwest of Ell Alamein, and repre-
sented gain of several miles by
British infantry which slashed for
ward under their own artillery bar
rage during the hours just before
the tank clash developed yesterday
at dawn.
The infantry won position which
partly pocketed a considerable Axis
force
First Big Scale Test.
That was when Marshal Rommel
sent his long-reserved armor into
action-and that was the moment
for which the British had prepared
Their own tanks stormed into the
fight, and the first big-scale test of
armored might was underway.
The Australians who spearheaded
the initial British thrust along the
coastal rail line where Axis forward
forces were hemmed in against the
sea bore the brunt of Marshal Rom
mels desperate tank assault for the
relief of his trapped troops.
The British tank onslaught, in
turn, eased the pressure on the
Australians and permitted the impe-
rial land forces to continue their
mop-up.
Battlefront dispatches said nu-
merous German tanks were knocked
out In the clash Of steel, while else
where the battle zone was strewn in
places with the bodies of Germans
who tried in vain to escape the trap
The clash of the tank forces was
accompanied by terrific and high
ly effective assault by Allied all
striking forces. including American
bombers, lasting throughout yester-
day and last night.
Still in command Of the air, the
Allied flyers ranged up and down
the lines, bombing and strafing Axis
positions and ranged far behind
the battlefront to enemy-held To-
bruk and other German and Ital-
ian communications.
American heavy bombers made
the attack of Tobruk, where direct
bomb hits started huge orange anc
yellow fires which United States
headquarters reported sent smoke
clouds rolling 5000 feet above the
harbor.
One challenged Axis fighter was
shot down and a second probably
destroyed.
United States medium bomber:
struck an enemy position along the
southern sector of the Ell Alameir
front and were credited with al
least three direct hits on Axis tank.
and destruction of at least sever
planes of an enemy concentration
caught on the ground in a raid or
Marten Bagush.
Main Battle on Northern Flank.
1t was on the northern flank o.
the Ell Alamein front, however
that the main battle ragged in thu
area where a stable enemy force
had been pocketed by Australians.
This pocket, formed by Australian
infantry of Gen. Montgomery's Brit.
ish 9th Army, was believed to be
about eight miles long, between TIE
Ell Elsa and Sidi Ell Rahman.
Light naval units of the British
(See EGYPT, Page A-43