Word: matruh
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Britain still watched Egypt anxiously, but last week she felt reassured. There had been some bad moments. When Rommel took Matruh, the back streets of polyglot Cairo chattered with rumors, hissed with opportunistic plans. Toasts to the Axis rang behind closed doors. Rich Italian matrons of Alexandria loaded themselves with cakes and bonbons, piled into cars and rushed off to suburban Mex, which they understood had already been entered by triumphant troops of II Duce. Mex was full of grinning Australians. The matrons jettisoned their gifts and went home...
...which their shore batteries could not hit or harm, but the R. N. stood its water in a historic demonstration of naval fire power supporting a land attack. The R. N. also supplied water, food and munitions to the land forces, which were 130 miles from their railhead at Matruh; and relieved them of inconvenient prisoners...
...moon set soon after midnight in a swirl of blowing sand. Everything was ready. The main body had sneaked up in a remarkable rush, from Matruh the day and night before, 60 miles in one haul, and now they settled down on the cold sands for a valuable nap. Mechanized forces had deployed earlier in a sharp curve to the south and west, using the moonlight to dodge scrub and big desert boulders...
...Italy's expert in African warfare, led the spearhead of a drive from Libya into Egypt. After his first crushing spurt, he had pegged in at Sidi Barrani (see map), and his forces had been consolidating themselves there ever since. The British were 80 miles east at Mersa Matruh, the outpost to which they had decided to retire, with tip & run tactics, whenever the drive from Libya materialized. To south and east, the Italians had already wiped out French Djibouti and British Somaliland, so as to clear the rear. This gave the Italians a strong clutch...
...pushed the vanguard of his 260,000 desert troops 50 miles along the coast of northwestern Egypt to Sidi Barráni. There he stopped, or was stopped. Ahead of him, along a salt-scarred road-a three-hour run in a fast tank-lay Mersa Matruh, first major objective in Italy's drive to conquer Egypt, a prize the Fascist press at home could shout through the streets as noisily as the populace once roared at slaves in clanking chains. But Graziani waited...