THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES Monday, November 9, 1942. THE NEW PHASE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25068, 9 November 1942, Page 2

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES Monday, November 9, 1942. THE NEW PHASE

In August of last year the United States defined its attitude towards France as being governed by “the manifest effectiveness ” with which the Vichy Government defended French territory against the Axis. In the month following, when General Weygand was relieved, reportedly at the express request of Herr Hitler, of his position of command in French North Africa, the United States State Department announced that its policy towards Vichy was being reviewed. These statements, almost unnoticed amid the anxious clashes of arms across half the world in the autumn of 1941, were the quiet introduction to that great drama which has opened in North Africa with the invasion by United States combined forces of the French African coasts. The Axis had warning that, once involved in the war, America would not, to quote a recent statement in the Army and Navy Journal, hesitate to take any strategic area which would be dangerous to her safety. The caution with which _ Germany has exploited “ collaboration ” with Vichy in using French African bases and facilities in the struggle with the democracies is proof that the development now reported was recognised—and feared. Yet exploit these territories Germany did. Cargoes from France to North Africa, under French convoy, were frequently destined for Marshal Rommel’s forces, and there have long been reports that Vichy African bases were being used by Nazi raiders. The strong United States landings, supported by the Royal Navy and the R.A.F., are originally provoked by the fact that Nazi France—the France of Vichy and Laval —has been assisting Hitler to strike at France’s erstwhile allies and future liberators. The assurance given by President Roosevelt to the French people that action has been taken “ solely to crush and destroy your enemies ” is an exact appraisal of the spirit of this campaign. Its purpose could hardly be met, of course, by a mere supervisory occupation of French African trouble spots. Neither Frenchmen —nor Gormans —will think for a moment that this apparently strong invasion force, which, according to Washington, is to be reinforced by British forces, has as its only objective the clearing of African bases of German and Vichy collaborators. In the strategy of offensive action against the Axis, for some emphatic sign of which the free world has been waiting breathlessly, the United States assault on North Africa’s Atlantic and Mediterranean shores looms large. The fighting against Rommel’s army in the Western Desert, in which the Nazis for the first time in this war are unequivocally “ on the run,” the intensified air attacks on Germany and Italy, naval concentrations at Gibraltar, the premonitory adventure of Dieppe, all fit into the pattern of offensive action foreshadowed when, in June, London and Washington announced their agreement “ with regard to the urgent tasks of creating a second front in Europe in 1942.” The final form of this pattern probably not even the Allied strategists could predict with nicety. Rommel has been defeated, but not vanquished; in Russia, the Germans have been harshly baulked and forced to prepare for a rigorous winter campaign; in Western Europe th’ey are firmly entrenched in positions which may prove supererogatory. They still possess great fighting strength, and a firm hold over most of the Continent, including Italy. Their final dislodgment must require a long and bitter struggle, in which the north-west African landings, even the successes of the Eighth -Army, are but episodes. But they are episodes that fit hopefully and logically into place. With the effects of the American landings yet to be determined, and the Axis still not far below the peak of its authority and power, it is nevertheless possible to read literal meaning into General Eisenhower’s words that “ the war has entered into the phase of liberation.”