FOR USE IN LIBYA?
NEW CONCENTRATION
LONDON, October 21
The big battle of North Africa is about to start, says Paris radio. The lull may end at any moment. Both sides are accumulating huge masses of war material for the great clash.
The Madrid correspondent of the "Daily Mail" says that some Vichy sources suggest that any Allied attack from West Africa is more likely to be directed against Libya than against Dakar. These sources assert that forces equalling and probably exceeding the Eighth Army have been concentrated in the region north of Lake Chad. These consist mainly of Americans and Fighting French, with a powerful air force and many tanks, guns, and tractors. This force is re-
mMssuAorie
ported to be capable of crossing the 700 miles of desert to the Mediterranean.
Military circles in Vichy assert that' the route was reconnoitred when a mobile armoured column recently raided the Benghazi aerodrome. The attack has' not yet been launched, it is said, because it is necessary' to build up immense reserves at the bases and also along the lines of march which would follow the three main caravan routes. Success1 in this drive would sweep French North Africa to General de Gaulle and would again give supremacy in the Mediterranean to the British Navy and be the beginning of an effective second front in the south.
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Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 99, 23 October 1942, Page 5
Word Count
227FOR USE IN LIBYA? Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 99, 23 October 1942, Page 5
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