CAIRO, Friday.

IN A SEVEN-DAY WHIRLWIND CAMPAIGN, THE IMPERIAL ARMY OF THE NILE HAS SWEPT THROUGH THE 175-MILE STRETCH OF HILL AND DALE OF CENTRAL CYRENAICA, SHOT PAST VILLAGES AND SETTLEMENTS IN ENDLESS SUCCESSION, SMASHED ENEMY AERODROMES IN A SERIES OF DEVASTATING RAIDS, AND TAKEN BENGHAZI.

Despite the broken morale of the Italians and the lack of any effective air opposition, the rapidity of the latest success is greater than anyone dreamed. It was expected that progress over the plateau, where the country is eminently suitable for defensive fighting, would be slow and protracted. In fact, the rate of advance has been about as quick as troops could make it on ordinary line march without opposition.

On thursday night our planes were still bombing Benghazi and the neighbouring aerodrome of Benina. Today both are in our hands, and the occupation of one-third of Libya is complete. It is 60 days since the campaign against Sidi Barrani began. In that time we have advanced 440 miles from Mersa Matruh over hitherto impregnable desert captured three well-defended strongholds, taken more than 110,000 prisoners, and brought Mussolini's North African Empire crashing about his ears

Brilliant Improvisation

And it is no secret that the original intention of the British leaders was limited to smashing Graziani's preparations for an attack on Egypt and pushing the Italians back to the frontier. The rest of this amazing campaign has been one brilliant improvisation after another, often by the men on the spot. The final assault on Benghazi was made in the face of a furious blinding sandstorm. In achieving this victory, which surely will go down in history as one of the most shattering and complete of all time, our casualties, as far as can be told, are at present under 2,000. Once the advance started, the momentum gradually increased until the last lap (Derna-Cyrene-Benghazi) achieved in the extraordinary time of one week

Here is part of the booty which fell into British hands at Tobruk. Line after line of Italian mechanised transport vehicles stand abandoned in the desert outsit ethe town. Over the town itself roll clouds of smoke from burning oil and petrol dumps.

Swept Round Mountain Plateau

It may now be revealed that the fall of Benghazi yesterday afternoon was mainly due to a masterly flanking movement by our armoured formations, which swept round the whole mountain plateau of Jebel Akhdar by the desert track, splitting off southwards from Bomba. Beating down a slight attempt at resistance at Mechili, 50 miles south, they ploughed their way for five days across the waterless desert in blinding sandstorms, while the Australians were racing through the uplands to the north behind the fleeing Italians. By a masterpiece of timing they came out on the coastal road leading to Tripoli, south of Benghazi, somewhere in the neighbourhood of Solluch, and cut the Italian retreat as the Australians came up from the north and hemmed in both sides. With the last life line to Tripoli straddled by the waiting tanks of the British the Italians in Benghazi threw in their hands with almost no resistance, and yesterday afternoon the Australian troops ended the 450-mile drive of the Army of the Nile with the triumphant march through the streets of Benghazi. It now appears certain that, contrary to expectation, Graziani had no intention of making any stand at all in Cyrenaica. The resistance put up at Derna was not so much to allow the Italians to re-form somewhere in the hills as to permit them to get as much as possible out of Benghazi before our troops arrived. The capital itself, which lies on a spit of land with salt lakes each side, had no regular system of fortifications, only a few barbed wire defences on the landward edge. It is not known yet what we have caught in the bag. The best part of the two divisions were known to have been there recently but it is too soon yet to say how man managed to get away before the road was cut.

A Country as Large as France

Benghazi, with a port as good as Tobruk, capable of taking a 20,000-ton liner, is a modern capital, with a peace-time population of 65,000, of which about 20,000 are Italian. Reports that the town is on fire are not confirmed, but it is highly probable that the Italians fired dumps and stores before leaving. With the capture of Benghazi our possession of Cyrenaica is complete. Except for a few pockets outstanding here and there, which still remain to be cleared up, we are now in complete control of a country as large as France. Fertile lands and rich colonies, upon which Mussolini lavished millions of lire are lost to him, and exactly 30 years after Italy proudly proclaimed the annexation of Cyrenaica the British flag floats triumphantly over the Governor's palace. The blow to Italy cannot be exaggerated. When the war began, Mussolini had 15 divisions in the field. Today, 10 of them have been captured or destroyed. About 110,000 men are in the prison camps of Egypt and India. The remaining five have lost half their equipment and armament to the British, who have taken nearly 300 tanks, more than 1,000 guns, and a thousand machineguns and small arms.

Graziani Faces Hopeless Situation

A great natural barrier of desert stretches hundreds of miles westward of Benghazi to Tripoli. With the depleted and demoralised forces under his command it is impossible for Marshal Graziani to attempt another desert advance infinitely greater than the one into Egypt, which cost him so dear. We are 10 times safer in Cyrenaica than we were in Egypt, and the latest and decisive blow to Mussolini spells the complete and final collapse of all his hopes in North Africa. First news of the fall of Benghazi came in a five-word communiqué from Cairo: "Benghazi is in our hands," it said. Then came the full communiqué, saying: "Libya: Benghazi surrendered yesterday. By brilliant operations the British armoured forces moving south of the Jebel Akda established themselves astride the Italian lines of communication leading southwards from Benghazi. At the same time Australian troops, advancing from Derna, gave the retreating enemy forces no respite. Demoralised and outmanoeuvred, the enemy were unable to put into effect plans for the defence of Benghazi." The Italians have not yet admitted the fall of Benghazi, but their communiqué yesterday said: "In Cyrenaica a violent battle is in progress between Italian troops and enemy motorised troops in the district south of Benghazi."

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