The Evening Star TUESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1940. IN THE WESTERN DESERT.

Evening Star, Issue 23755, 10 December 1940, Page 4

The Evening Star TUESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1940. IN THE WESTERN DESERT.

The announcement that British forces have taken the offensive against the Italian troops in the Western Desert of Egypt heralds a fresh and important phase in Mediterranean developments. The news available at the moment suggests that an operation of greater significance than skirmishings among patrols is in progress. Units of the British Army, in which it is likely enough that Australians and New Zealanders are included, have advanced in the Sidi Barrani area, and apparently their natural vigour, brought to a still higher pitch because of many months of comparative quiet, has already found drastic expression at the Italians’ expense. It is reported that 4,000 of the enemy have been captured—indeed a large haul for the initial thrust. Wide satisfaction will be felt at the thought that yet another blow is being struck at an enemy which, at the very least, has a considerable nuisance value in the Middle East campaign, and this feeling will bo heightened because of the fact that the British success will be of indirect assistance to the Greeks in the Allies’ campaign against the common foe.

One thing we at home must guard against, however, is the kind of wishful thinking which tends to foresee a repetition in Egypt of the inexorable sweep made by the Greeks in Albania. Desert fighting calls for a strategy all its own. Armies in Egypt and Libya cannot live on the land, as it were, almost up to the front line. The problem of water and general supplies is ever present. Until war broke out in the Balkans it seems to have been no part of British policy, robbed of French support, to take the initiative except by way of a counter-attack after the first prospective fury of an Italian attack had expended itself. The Italians for years have been

building up formidable concentrations in Libya—much more formidable in fact than the cohorts that wore thought noccsssary to make Greece capitulate. Our Saturday night commentator quoted on good authority an estimate that General Wavcll’s composite army of British and dominion troops would be outnumbered (oven after the recent reinforcement) by two to one in everything —troops, tanks, planes, and guns. Quite rightly he qualified his reminder of those odds by pointing out that the desert is the terrain par excellence for mobile warfare, where quality will tell against quantity. To-day’s messages bear out the truth of these remarks. When the story of this war comes to be written it will be found that never in their long and creditable history have British troops fought with more vigour and elan than against those modern aggressors. Tho prevailing determination to knock Italy out of the war and then concencentratc on a similar fate for Germany can be sensed even at this great distance fpom the scene of action. The High Command is obviously in the mood to take every advantage of the opportunity presented by the triumphs of the Greeks and of the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force, all of which have resulted in a lowering of Italian morale, both in the actual war zone and at home. The readiness of the Italians to retreat or to throw themselves on the mercy of their attackers indicates that they have no heart for participation in Mussolini’s latest war. Yesterday it was reported that Marshal Graziani, officer in charge of the Italian forces in North Africa, had asked in vain to be relieved of his command. Whether this report is accurate or not, it certainy scorns likely that Graziani, a well-tried desert warrior, is not satisfied with the manner in which his superiors in Rome are conducting tho Fascist operations. The attack on Egypt should have been launched long before this. It might well have been substituted for the ill-advised assault on Greece. Now the oppportunity appears to have slipped by, for the Italians are heavily committed in the Balkans, and the Egyptians, heartened by events there, would be the more eager to join Britain in defence of their country. Britain’s victory at Taranto, as a consequence of which tho balance of sea power in the Mediterranean has assumed a new significance, places tho Italian troops in Libya in a still more invidious position. British leadership is clearly of a mind to exploit the advantages of the situation to the full. It may be possible to cut the communications of the Italian African army and demolish it more or less at leisure, and then deploy the British Middle East resources against tho enemy in the Balkans. The present thriist in Egypt may be the first in pressure towards that dbjective.