World War II: conflict in Libya, 1942

Mine sappers clear the way as General Montgomery directs the tanks and infantry of the British Eighth 8th Army in the longest sustained advance in military history. Newest phase of the British Eighth 8th Army's victory in Libya. General Montgomery, fighting son of an Irish churchman, directing the campaign that is hurling Marshal Rommel and his Nazis Africa Corps back across the desert in utter collapse. Past wrecked planes blasted from the ground and from the air. Seventy percent of the enemy's mechanized equipment smashed in its tracks. Through mud and muck the longest sustained advance in military history. Dirty and begrimed Nazis General Wilhelm von Thoma, Rommel's second in command, is captured by a British Hussar (Captain Allen Grant Singer of the 10th Royal Hussars). Arriving at General Montgomery's headquarters the prisoner is ordered flown to England. Mine sweepers, the engineers are the real heroes. Using magnetic detectors they go ahead of the tanks clearing the desert of German planted mine fields. The magnets sound a buzzer when they detect mines hidden in the sand. Now, infantry to the attack. So swift is the advance that as these pictures are issued news comes that Rommel's army has been split. Half his force is trapped. Pressing ever westward through the smoke of battle the Allied pincers close on Rommel as he races to join his shattered force with a Nazis army in Tunisia. Rear guards surrender one by one. Eight entire Italian divisions have been knocked out. Four of Germany's famed Afrika Korps divisions are done for. Down the (Via balbia or Via Balbo) road, named for Italy's late Marshal Balbo, a procession of trucks loaded with captives streams to the rear. Three hundred thousand prisoners taken by the British. Their days of fighting over. At El Agheila, where Rommel was expected to make a desperate stand, British fighting men see the tide of war turn for the United Nations as the Union Jack (British flag) flies over Libya.