NOTES ON THE WAR NEWS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 17, 21 January 1943, Page 4

NOTES ON THE WAR NEWS

TUNISIAN SCENE

AXIS LAST STAND IN AFRICA

While the Red Army is steadily driving into the Axis front in Russia at more than a score of points, the Axis is creating a new front in North Africa for the defence of its last, but far from least, foothold on the southern Mediterranean coast. There seems hardly any doubt now that Rommel is quitting Tripolitania and its capital and j port, Tripoli, to seek refuge with the rest of the Axis forces under General yon Arnim in Tunisia, who has succeeded General Nehring and is already trying to create more elbow room for, the arrival of Rommel with the remnants of his Afrika Korps. The movements of the opposing forces in North Africa have been well likened in the first place to a race for position, and the first heat may be admitted to have gone to the Axis in securing the best of Tunisia to the north and east. The British First Army's sprint for the key points of Bizerta and Tunis was beaten only by a short head, but it was beaten, and the Axis now holds for the moment the keys to the Central Mediterranean. Writing of Tunisia in the "New York Times" of November 12, before the race had been decided, Hanson Baldwin says: "It was a race for high stakes. Tunisia is a key to the Central Mediterranean. For through its bottleneck the main coastal rail and road routes link North-west and Northeast Africa; its reaching promontory of Cape Bon is less than ninety miles across the Sicilian Channel from Italian Sicily; it commands the Italian base at Tripoli in Libya, and in Tunisia is the splendid naval base of Bizerta and numerous airfields, Sfax, Gabes, Tunis, Bizerta, etc., all within easy range of Sicily, Italy, and British Malta. If the Germans consolidate a strong position there, the fighting in North Africa has just started." Old Battleground. Through the centuries Tunisia, though the name is modern, has been a battleground. Here lay Carthage, from which Rome was threatened by Hannibal, and here on the field of Zama he was decisively defeated by Scipio Africanus. Carthage was destroyed—razed to the ground—less than sixty years later, in 146 B.C. It was in Tunisia that Julius Caesar in the Battle of Thapsus ended the Civil War and the Roman Republic. Carthage revived under the Roman Empire and became famous as a centre of Christianity with St. Augustine as the leading figure. It was sacked by the Vandals, A.D. 439, but was recovered by the great General Belisarius, given first place in military history by Field-Marshal Wavell, a century later. It was finally lost to the I Arabs in their conquest of North Africa, A.D. 648-669. It was later held by Charlemagne and again by Charles Vof Spain. It was a leading base of the famous Barbary pirates, the scourge of the seas for centuries, until Britain and the United States cleaned them up. Bizerta's Defences. Under the French, Tunisia had always been heavily- garrisoned with French troops, French Legionaries, and colonial corps. Bizerta possesses a great natural harbour. It is approached from the sea by a narrow but easily navigable channel, which opens out into Lake Bizerta, of sufficient depth and expanse to accommodate a large fleet. Here Wrangel's White Russian fleet was interned and mouldered for years, and into Bizerta later steamed the remnants of the Republican navy of Spain in the recent civil* war. Bizerta is heavily fortified, but, like Singapore, mainly towards the sea. It is, or was, more vulnerable from the land. Along the entire Tunisian coastline there are forts here and there, especially at Cape Bon, the tip of Tunisia. The defences on the landward side of the coastal block held by the Axis are a series of mountain heights to the north and waterless plains in the centre, with another range of hills in the south inside the boundary separating Tunisia from Tripolitania. Here the French erected the Mareth Line—or "Little Maginot Line"—as a protection against attack from the east. The principal railways and roads run along the coast connecting Bizerta and Tunis with Sousse, Sfax, and Gabes. From this backbone railway spur lines run westward into the interior, two northern ones connecting with the Algerian railway system. It is along these lines that the Germans are endeavouring to make more room for themselves by attacks on strategic heights and road junctions. They seem to have achieved at least a limited success, and now hold, if not the most, at least the best, of Tunisia, practically all the fertile and food-producing areas, leaving the Allies the rougher country, mountains, desert, and gravel plains. If Rommel succeeds m getting into Tunisia* with anything like an army, he will have the Mareth Line, which is really formidable, to defend any attack by the Eighth Army irom the east. To' the west lie the Matmatas Ranges, a strong natural barrier, and to the south is the Sahara. Ghadames, in the extreme south at the point where Algeria, Tunisia, and Tripolitania -meet, is reported today to be still in Italian hands. after earlier references from which it might be assumed that the French had occupied it. One Axis Weakness. Summing up, one might say that the Axis position in Tunisia is a strong one, capable of prolonged resistance, except for one condition. This is the line of communication and supply with Axis Europe. This is already suffering severely from Allied attacks from the air. from the surface, and from under the sea. If the strategic position of the Axis, with Sicily, Sardinia, and Italy so conveniently near, is superior to that of the Allies, the greater strength of the Allies at sea and in the air probably more than neutralises the strategic advantage. With Tripoli in Allied hands and Malta to the east, and the Algerian ports of Bona, Phi.lippeville, and Bougi.e to the west, with the Algerian and Western Tunisian airfields, now being completed, the Allies should be able to make the position of the Axis in Tunisia very uncomfortable—even precarious. At the same time the pounding of the R.A.F. over north-western Europe from the

Channel to Berlin is drawing much of the limited strength of the Luftwaffe away from where it is needed most, against Russia and in North Africa. On the whole, therefore, it may be reasonable to expect a final decision in North Africa earlier, than a month ago seemed possible. The most formidable delaying agent remains the U-boat, in this war, as in the last, the Allies' Public Enemy No. 1.