Cairo, May 15
Stopped (With Reuter's Special Correspondent With a Mobile Patrol In the Western Desert) May 15.
Not only are the Germans being held on the whole of the 50-mile front some 40 miles inside the Egyptian border but reconnaissance planes reported on Tuesday that one or two of the five columns appear to be withdrawing. This may mean that they have had to abandon their intention of thrusting along the coast simultaneously with an attempt to cut off the Allied forces by a southward sweep across the desert, At the moment it is still not clear whether this attack was a full-scale effort or only a big raid intended to test the strength of the Allied forces and positions, Soon after pushing forward at sunrise on Monday the Germans met, Allied advanced defensive screens and artillery. This brought them to a hesitant standstill, While they were trying unsuccessfully to feel a way through the Allied positions fighter planes suddenly swooped down on them from the sun, sending them scurrying in all directions, Plane after plane swept low through the dust clouds all through the day until darkness over the desert swallowed armoured cars and tanks.
In these operations South African Air Force units were in action fom the first time in the western desert, They had arrived from Eritrea—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.