Current Events July 3, 1942: EGYPT BATTLE IN DOUBT

EGYPT BATTLE IN DOUBT
Furious Struggle Rages; Bern Hears Axis Within 20 ML
of Alexandria; Report
U. S. Troops Fight With British                                  
                                      The Bakersfield Californian                                           
                    BAKERSFIELD,  CALIFORNIA, FRIDAY, JULY 3, 1942

Renew Desert War After Nazi Repulse
Axis Claims Struggle Is Won but Little News Comes From Violent Egypt Clashes
By ROGER D. GREENE Associated Press War Editor
BRITAIN'S Egyptian armies clashed with the axis in violent battle west of El Alamein again today after driving Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's Afrika Corps into at least temporary retreat in the three-day-old "battle of the bottleneck."Dispatches from the fronts said the British, rallying at the eleventh hour, were"striking furiously at the axis invaders. .However, dispatches from Berlin to Berne, Switzerland said late today, that German and Italian troops were within 15 or 20miles of Alexandria and that the battle of El Alamein was already regarded an won, with the British in retreat toward the Nile delta.(There was no substantiation of these reports from any other source and nothing to this effect was broadcast over the axis radios to the United States.The German accounts said the British had been dislodged from positions along the Arabian gulf .and that these outposts had been occupied by Rommel's forces.

British Lose Six Warships Sunk in Attempt to Aid Libya Army
LONDON, July 3. (AP)—
-The British light cruiser Hermione, four British destroyers and one Polish destroyer were lost in the recent effort to reinforce Malta and British forces in Libya before they were pushed back into Egypt, it was announced officially today. The loss of the ships was announced in Commons on June 23 by Clement Attlee, dominions secretary and deputy prime minister,but he did not then Identify them. Besides the 5450-ton Hermione, the destroyers were the British Bedouin,Hasty, Grove, Airedale and the Polish Kii.lawiak.

Nazis Strike at Russ on 6 Fronts"Grand Offensive”Seen; Axis Says 'Gains Made
By Associated Press
ADOLF HITLER'S grand offensive against Russia appears today to be taking shape as new battles erupted along the Soviet front. Aside from the dying battle of Sevastopol the Germans were now attacking furiously in at least six sectors—Kursk, Belgorod, Volchnnsk, Krahkov, Moscow and Volkhov and Hitler's high command said axis forces had broken through on a width of 185miles.Germanand other axis troops have broken through the Russian front on a width of nearly 300 kilometers(about 185 miles), the German-high command announced today.