SETBACK ON MARETH LINE

New Zealand Herald, Volume 80, Issue 24542, 26 March 1943, Page 2

SETBACK ON MARETH LINE

Gloomy interpretations of the Eighth Army's setback on the Mareth Line will be found to be unwarranted if the whole military situation be examined. It is not the Allies but Rommel who is in an uncommonly tight corner. He is still faced by a determined and skilful opponent on his front The left, wing of the Eighth Army has, moreover, succeeded in sweeping round Rommel's right flank and is in position near El Mamma to threaten the bottleneck at Gabes, through which the Axis must pass all its supplies forward to the Mareth Line, and its only avenue of retreat. North and west of the bottleneck Rommel has to reckon with the advance of one French and two American columns. They threaten to take him in the rear, and cut, his line of communication along the coast. The Americans comprising the most northerly of the columns are already within 30 miles of the coastal road and railway. The fact is that, while Rommel is expending his strength in defending the Mareth Line in the south, General Alexander's trap

further north is not far from closing. General Montgomery can reflect that, although his assault has failed for the time being, he is. holding and engaging a large part of the Axis forces, giving time and opportunity for the envelopment to lie worked out. The worst feature about the repulse is that the stern task of breaching the Mareth Line has to be done over again—unless the threats to Rommel's flank, communications and rear force him to yield the position and fall back to Gabes, or even further north. Another question is whether the Eighth Army's flanking force can maintain its position near' El Harama. The failure of the main attack to break through toward Gabes leaves the flanking force in an advanced and exposed position, with its long communications across difficult country open to forays by the enemy posted at the southern end of the Mareth Line or ambushed in the Matmata mountains.