Evening star., 1942-01-18
Direct Supply Route
Opened in Libya by
ha|faya Surrender
Axis StronehoId's FoII
Clears Way to Speed
TripoIituniu Drive
BY EDWARD KENNEDY,
Associated Press War Correspondent

CA1hO, 'EgypL, Jan. l1.-BrltlSn
:. 1mperials, Poles and Free French
have won Halfaya Pass and thereby
gained a direct route of supply to
speed their drive toward Tripoli-
tania for a showdown with the Axis
in North Africa.
The unconditional surrender Of
the $500 Axis defenders of the
"Hellfire" Canyon shortcut through
the coastal escarpment on the Egyp-
tian-Libyan border yesterday morn
/ ing was announced by the British
today 1t rubbed out the last Ger
manhattan stand short of the
{ Gulf of Sirte, 300 miles to the west.
! Cut OF From Mediterranean.
: Battered by bombers, beset from
all sides. and cut off from the Med
iterranean by British capture Of
! Salum last Tuesday, the Axis gar
rison failed to make Halfaya an
other Tobruk from which to men,
ace the rear Of the entire British
operations.
( pointing out the big diff
: British units via 100-mile de-
tour around an Axis-held Hal
faya, a British military COM
mentator in London hailed the
surrender as real victory"
giving the British clear field
to intensity their push against
s. Gen. Erwin Rommel's Axis forces
x. in the FL Apheila area
s. ("The windup of the Halfaya
Il operations will release many
good men for other duties" he
said. Our operations at the Gel
Agheila) front at present have
= not been limited by the lack Of
men; supply transport is the big
difficulty"
(He estimated that the sur
render of the $500 at Halfaya
brought the total of Axis pris-
oners in the current campaign to
$1,000, with still others from for
ward operations as yet to be
counted.
c'This is the end of any hope
the Axis command had left of
getting back into Cirenaica in the
near future he added
By-Passed in November.
Because of the strength of the
Halfaya defenSe-Where close to TO-
900 Germans and italians originally
manned artillery emplacements and
trenches cut in the solid rock-the
British by-passed the strong point
in their November l8 drive into
Libya
Halfaya had been won and lost
before in the back and forth battle
for control on the desert frontier.
The British seized it December 16,
1910, in their first thrust into Libya
The Germans captured it back April
IA. 194l. in their counter offensive
A communique said severe sand
storms and heavy rain yesterday
had interfered with all operations in
the Ell Agheila area and that even
fighter and bomber action was
brought virtually to standstill.
Ell Agheila is IS miles east of the
boundary between Cirenaica-East-
ern Libya-and the Sirte section of
Tripolitania -
Surrender Surprise.
1t was learned that the Axis garri-
son of Halfaya hoisted the white
flag before the start of the big on
slaught for which the British ana
their allied troops were moving into
position.
The surrender was said to have
come somewhat as surprise to the
siege forces which had expected that !
week or more of fighting might be
= required to smash the heavily forti-
fed Axis stronghold
The corrison. however was found
= to be short Of water, food and sup
plies.
Rains had filled cisterns dug in
p. the rock at the ton of the pass bit
the garrison had difficulty in reach
Ing these because they were under
artillery fire.
For the past several days. German
planes had dropped large packages |
OF concentrated food to the en-
circled garrison each dawn but other
than that the hemmed-in troops had
no help.
Some of the Italians were said
by the British to have deserted.
complaining that German troops in
the pass were given hot meals once
a day while only biscuits and canned
corned beef was allotted to the
. Italians.