Evening star., 1942-10-28
British Report.
ga.
Victory in First
y,
Test in Egypt
Great Tank Bottles
Develop; Air Attack
By Enemy RepuIsed
y
BY the Associated Press.

oS tue A10OVAAtcO fIcSe.
CAIRO, Oct. %. The next
phase of the new battle for North
Africa was shaping up today in
the widening gaps in the Axis
desert defense line as Britain's
Army of the Nile and Field Mar
shall Erwin Rommels invaders
rolled an increasing weight of
tanks into the first clashes of an
expected crucial test of armored
power.
United States fighting pilots, hit
ting harder each day, downing seven
of a total Allied bag of 18 Axis
planes, and single member of the
American Black Scorpion Squadron
1t. Lyman Middleditch of High
land, N. j., was credited with three
of the aerial victories. 1t. Middle
ditch downed another Axis plane
Sunday.
A British communique which re-
ported further progress" Monday
night and unabated attacks on the
German-1talian line throughout
yesterday said the British came out
on top in the first main test OF
armor.
Yesterday" it declared. "an
armored clash on larger scale than
hitherto developed, After consider
able fighting the enemy were driven
of with considerable loss. Our
own losses in tanks were light.
Fighting continues"
Dispatches from the front indi-
Gated the Axis tank losses already
had been considerable, although
it was clear that by far the main
mass of Marshal Rommel's tanks
still were poised back of the battle
front, where they have been under
continued bombing and strafing by
United States and British bomber
and fighter bomber squadrons.
Deadly Battering.
Prisoners who streamed back along
the British supply lines said they
had been under deadly battering by
Allied artillery barrage which had
been laundering since the outset
OF the British push, now in its
fifth day.
The Allied air forces-United
States, British and South African
kept Marshal Rommel's planes on
the defensive yesterday, except for
a single attempted Stuka attack,
In London, Lord Croft, parlia-
mentary secretary for war, said the
British 9Th Army had made good
progress in the north tthe seaward
flank of the Ell Alamein line) where
three objectives allotted to them
mostly were gained and held"
tThe 9th Army "has advanced
beyono a number of enemy
strong points and is busy mop
ping up Others" Ralph Walling,
Reuters correspondent on the
Egyptian front, telegraphed to
London today
(His dispatch bore the date
line West of the Ell Alamein
line" implying that he had
passed through Marshal Rom
mels forward defenses with 1t.
Gen. B. L. Montgomerys British
forces.)
Superior Air Strength.
The superior Allied air strength
was used night and day against
enemy concentrations and forward
landing grounds and light bombers
and fghter-bombers raided the
Matruh dock area. Night fighters
shot down a Junkers 81 during the
night, the communique said.
Allied planes shot down 13 Axi.
planes during a dive bomber at.
tack on British forward troops, thu
communique said. This attack wa.
one of the few aggressive operation.
undertaken by the Axis, whose
forces were mainly on the de.
rensive," it was said.
Allied fighters intercepted tn,
German dive bombers, escorted BY
fighters, apparently before they
reached their objective, dispensing
them. Most of the planes shot dowr
were reported to be fighters,
Six Allied aircraft were lost ir
operations over North Africa and il
the defense of Malta, where tn.
Axis bombing continued with littl.
damage reported. the communiqut
said.
Slow, Hard Struggle.
The slow, hard struggle acros.
miles of strongly held desert posi-.
tions was expected to continue TO!
some time before sufficient groune
was cleared for an Allied tank blow
at the armored backbone of Marsha
Rommels army.
(The German news agency
DNB reported last night that
British tanks already were at
tacking in waves on the northern
flank of the Axis line, where, the
agency said, the largest part of
Allied tank forces were concen-
trated. These attacks failed to
achieve any noteworthy success,
DNB said.
(The Italian high command de-
clared today that SO British
tanks were destroyed and 81
British planes were shot down
| yesterday in Egypt and. after
bitter fighting, an important
position was retained.
German broadcasts said to-
day that the number of British