| Are they going forth, this time, or back? I've lost track. |
Col Gaddafi's men, whose rockets and 155mm shells can reach up to 25 miles according to rebels, had advanced their guns allowing them to strike deeper into rebel lines. Each time their armada of pickup tricks and saloon cars regrouped to fire their own artillery of vehicle-mounted rocket tubes, they were hit with accurate counter barrages.
Kamal Mughrabi, 64, a retired soldier who joined the rebel army said: "When you see this, the situation is very bad. We cannot match their weapons."
Nato insisted that its bombs and missiles had hit radar, munitions dumps, armoured vehicles and rocket launchers. But the rebels insisted it was not enough, suggesting most of the air strikes had been around the besieged town of Misurata in the west, rather than on their eastern front line.
"If the planes don't come back and hit them we'll have to keep pulling back," said Mr Mughrabi.
Low hills which had earlier in the week provided a safe, commanding view of the approach to Brega were on Tuesday straddled by explosions which sent rebels scattering, and they lost a hard-won toehold in the vital resource town.
Brega holds oil and gas plants which could provide badly needed revenue and fuel for the rebels. Power in Benghazi, the rebel's base city, is generated using gas from Brega and shortages have led the revolutionary authorities to begin rationing electricity.
The more staunch fighters tried to steady the nerves of their comrades by shouting "God is Great!" and exhorting them to hold fast, but with little effect. As the barrage crept forward across the desert floor, the rebel positions once more dissolved into a free-for-all of confused traffic heading east.
The scramble slowed in the late afternoon around ten miles west of Ajdabiya. Wounded from the government push were ferried by volunteers to the Ajdabiya hospital, where patients were stabilised before being sent onward to Benghazi.
Mohammad Abdul Karim, chief of the hospital, said he had lost count of the number of wounded treated in the hospital in the past six weeks.
The rebels played down the loss of territory, saying it was unlikely to be the last reverse they would suffer before overthrowing the regime.