The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun THURSDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1941. THE LIBYAN BATTLE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 287, 4 December 1941, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun THURSDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1941. THE LIBYAN BATTLE

YEAR ago, General Wavell's daring offensive in Libya had gained a decisive victory within ten days. The memory of that fact remained, and undoubtedly influenced the mental approach of many people—not least, the military spokesmen who are the source of much of our news— when the present campaign was launched over three weeks ago. We now know well that the task is much more difficult this time. While there is no reason to doutrt; that the Imperial forces are much stronger in every department than they were last time, the enemy also is much more formidable. He is better led, more experienced, and possessed of more modern equipment than Graziani's army a year ago. The relative strength of the opposing forces can only be guessed, but it seems reasonable to suppose that von Rommel, after suffering the initial disadvantage of surprise, would not have chosen to stay and fight out a mechanised battle if his armoured divisions had been much inferior in strength to the attackers. However, he did choose to stay, and for more than a fortnight a great, confused and confusing battle has been waged, a battle in which, apparently, heavy losses have been suffered (though not necessarily in men) by both sides. And still there is no decision. Localities have been occupied first by British, then by Germans, and some have been captured and recaptured several times; but neither side is able to claim that it has accomplished the fundamental purpose of destroying the enemy's machine-power. In the confusion of a swiftlymoving battle, "untoward events" such as the capture of a German general and the reported capture of two New Zealand brigadiers are to be expected. Such events have "few of the implications which would have been apprehended by everyone had they occurred in the last war. If some of the "highest officers in the British Command" are personally leading counter-attacks, then they are exposed to death or injury or capture exactly as are their juniors. The one feature of the battle which is surprising is hot that the Germans have fought hard and skilfully and with a measure of success, for they have had more experience in tank fighting than the British, but that they have apparently not yet been seriously handicapped through supply shortages. It was believed that Admiral Cunningham's naval offensive had prevented the landing of replacements in the quantities the Germans needed, and that the reduced quantities which were landed had been further reduced by the operations of the Royal Air Force, concerning whose ceaseless activity there are reports every day. In these conditions it was expected—too optimistically, as events seem to show—that by now the fighting capacity of the German armoured divisions would have been greatly restricted, and that it would rapidly become worse. Of this there is, unfortunately, no indication at present. Yet it would be unreasonable to assume that an event which has been delayed beyond our expectation of it will not occur. If German supplies and reserves on the spot were greater than had been thought, they are still being used up, and the prospect of replacing them appears poor. The British supply difficulties, though not negligible, are not comparable with those of the Germans. No doubt, in their first experience of large-scale, sustained tank fighting, the British have made mistakes, probably more than the Germans; but there is no reason to think - that their determination has been weakened by their experience to date, or that their resources of both material and men will prove insufficient to turn the scale.