SWAYED TO AND FRO

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 64, Issue 4535, 11 February 1942, Page 5

SWAYED TO AND FRO

AFRICAN VICISSITUDES CAMPAIGN’S PROFIT AND LOSS Ever since the entry ( of Italy into the war made Africa, and’ more particularly the territories- lying -between the Suez Canal and Tunisia, an important theatre of war, the change of fortunes between the contending 4. forces has been remarkable—almost ’ without precedent in military history. The battle has swayed to and fro with first one and then the other opponent in the ascendancy. For the time being the Axis forces have the initiative, and are recording successes, and the Bth Army is, it would appear, hard pressed to stem their advance. 1940In the aiitumn of 1940, a few months after Italy had entered the war, and the defection of France had left the British position in the Middle East seriously impaired, Marshal Graziani made his first move into , Egypt. His troops advanced along the coast to Sidi Barrani, and a little beyond in what Italy openly boosted was the first step of a campaign which would almost immediately, drive Britain out of Egypt. Having made, this step, Marshal Graziani paused to consolidate his position. Then General Wavell struck. The Italian forces, poised and disposed for attack rather than defence, were caught unaware and shattered, and the British forces, swiftly following up their first advantage, were able, despite marked numerical inferiority to prevent any organisation of the defence. An Italian army of some’ 200,000 men lost nearly all its total strength of personnel and its equipment. Two months later the British and Imperial troops were driven back to their original positions by an attack, largely carried out by General Rommel and his Afrika Korps. But the Axis drive to Suez was postponed for a year. 1941- - Through the European summer of 1941 General Rommel and his Italian supporting troops laboured to amass a fresh store of munitions to replace those lost by General Graziani’s army. The Afrika Korps,-flower of Nazi Panzer units, girded its loins for a blitzkreig to Alexandria and Suez. Again the Allied forces struck first, but this time it was not so easy. The forces opposed to them were made of stiffer stuff and, as Mr Churchill told the House of Commons recently, for a time it was touch and go. Only superhuman efforts by all the Allied units engaged and by the taking of considerable risk were the Axis forces driven back to El Agheila, and now, with reinforcements and partial re-supply, General Rommel has regained the initiative. Already London opinion envisages a second garrison in Tobruk and a return to the frontier line. PROFIT AND LOSS

Many have been inclined to look upon the reversal of fortune in Cyrenaica ort this occasion as indicating some blunder or blunders in tactics but it is possible that such a view is based more on disappointment than sound reasoning. Mr Churchill has told us that the British Christmas offensive was undertaken with forces outnumbered by more than two to one, but nothing is more certain than that numbers were taken into consideration when the decision to launch the attack was made. It is more likely that the reverse, which has come as a sequel to that brilliant attack and recapture of Cyrenaica, has been simply the result of the enemy managing to assemble sufficient reinforcements to stem the tide and—for the time being—overwhelm the Bth Army.

General Rommel was poising himself for an attack, and his attack, with numerical superiority would have been extremely dangerous to the Al-. lies. The men, and, perhaps more ilnportant, the supplies used up by the Axis forces iin defence, and left behind (notably in Bardia), in their retreat, were meant for attack. It will take some tihie for such a vast quantity again to be gathered together, even granting that Allied successes against trans-Mediterranean convoys may be expected to be less numerous than hitherto.

In recent months the Nazis, recognising the lack of success of Italian submarines against the British Fleet, have, to th<| partial weakening of their underwater attack in the Atlantic, sent a number of U-boats to protect the Mediterranean convoy routes. A notable result of this was the loss by the Royal Navy of the Ark Royal, and, later, of the battleship Barham. Thus the Royal Navy’s depredations on the “Tripoli Ferry” have suffered.

The campaigning, season is, however, well . advanced, and there seems little likelihood that Rommel can restore his position, in time to make an attack on Egypt before it passes. This is what General. Auchinleck’s offensive has gained, even if the territorial position returns to that of 1941.