Evening star., 1942-11-22
RommeI Showdown
With British Forces
Is Believed Near
Axis Corps Is Chased
Into Approaches Of
Ell AeheiIo DefiIe
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
CAIRO, Nov. 21.-Striking swiftly
beyond wly-captured Bengasi, the
British 9th Army squeezed Marshal
Erwin Rommel's chastised Africa
Corps into the approaches of the
Ell Agheila defile tonight in a race
to deliver knockout to the hapless
Axis survivors before they could
burrow into the natural defenses
of that 3O-mile-wide Libyan coastal
strip.
British forward elements, now
more than half way to Tunisia from
their starting point at Ell Alamein
in Egypt, caught up with the Axis
rear guard at Agedabia, some 10
miles from Ell Agheila, yesterday.
With the 9th Army maintaining its
average advance of 80 miles day,
it appeared that the showdown clash
on the heretofore unbreached Ell
Agheila line was only matter of
hours away.
Marshal Rommel was believed al
ready to have gotten the main body
of his broken army into the Ell
Agheila area, which lies on the Gulf
of Sirte along the border between
Tripolitania and Cirenaica.
Perilous Position.
With most of his tanks gone and
with another opposing army behind
him in Tunisia, his position was a
perilous one despite Ell Agheila's
strong points. But in all probability
another major campaign with heavy
fighting will have to be fought be-
fore the Axis is driven out of Africa.
Regardless of what Marshal Rom
mel does now, his headlong fight
before the grimly pursuing British
has set record for backtracking in
more than two years of war in North
Africa.
The spectacular British drive has
pushed him back more than 600
miles as the plane flies and 800 miles
as the tank must travel from Ell
Alamein, where a month ago he
presented a mighty threat to Alex
andria and SueZ. That is more than
double the distance he forced the
British to withdraw last June.
Heavy Blows by Raj.
The Raj, meanwhile, was striking
heavily against Axis shipping in the
central Mediterranean in token of
what will come when Allied gains in
North Africa are turned into bases
for attacks on enemy communica-
tions and on the Continent itself
An 8,000-ton merchant vessel was
attacked off Cape Bon, in the Sicili-
an Straits, and another 1000 ton
ner sustained direct hits during an
attack by the Raj near Kuriet
Island off the Tunisian coast. The
latter was raked also by cannon
and machine-gun fire. These were
direct blows at efforts of the Axis
to establish itself across the straits
from Sicily in Tunisia.
Malta based British bombers at
tackled Catania, Augusta and Cosimo
airdromes in Sicily. Air-borne Axis
troops have been taking off for the
Tunisian front from these points.
The triumphant British entry into
Bengasi yesterday was the third in
this war and represented the fifth
time the Libyan port had changed
hands between the opposing forces.
Great Fires Blazing.
Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery
men saw the awful results of the
continued pounding of the port by
British and American bombers be-
fore the Axis pulled out.
Moles, jetties and harbor installa-
tions were in shambles; great fires
still were blazing from the Allied
blows and from Marshal Rommel's S
own application of the torch.
One Raj pilot who got a close
view of the harbor said the scene
was one of almost unbelievable de-
struction and desolation." Smoke
still rose from wrecked ships dotting
the once-fine harbor.
American pilots flying four-mo-
tored Liberators played great part
in this vast blow to the enemy. For
months they bombed the port regu-
lor1xy