WAR REVIEWED

Timaru Herald, Volume CLI, Issue 22203, 21 February 1942, Page 5

WAR REVIEWED

Sending Of Forces Overseas British Tank Strength LONDON, February 19. Presenting the Army estimates in the House of Commons the Secretary of State for War (Captain D. H. Margesson) said that since no details of what had exactly happened in the Malayan campaign or of the British casualties had yet reached him he did not now propose to discuss the campaign. As soon as any information was received it would immediately be made public. Turning to the Libyan battle the Minister said that the,,ebb and flow bewildered the onlooker. He could not see how far our latest reserves had been due to tactical considerations. “But I do know,” he said, “that the difficulties the. staff have had to contend with in keeping the troops in the forward areas supplied with food, ammunition, petrol, etc., have been colossal. In (the desert there was no continuous front line. Our forward troops are not 25 but sometimes as much as 30 miles in front of their railhead." The House would readily understand from this that the number of troops that could be maintained in the forward area to attack Marshal von Rommel’s strongly-defended positions at Agheiia or to resist any counter-at-tack that might be made against them was strictly limited by the amount of supplies that could be brought forward over those hundreds of miles of desert, said the Minister. As von Rommel retreated on to his supply dumps his maintenance difficulties became less, although his total force had been considerably weakened. Thus, owing to the supply difficulties, although he had a total force stronger than the enemy this advantage was counteracted by our not being able to maintain in the forward line of battle a force sufficiently strong to drive the enemy from his defended position, covering his reinforcement of supplies, or to withstand the counter-stroke which an enemy, refreshed with men and materials, was able to launch against these light forces which were all we were able to maintain until once again we were able to use Benghazi as a base.

New Anti-Tank Gun

Captain Margesson then dealt with certain criticism of the efficiency of British tanks. Before the war, he said, Britain’s tank and two-pounder antitank gun were without doubt the best in the World. Its worth was shown in the battles preceding the evacuation at Dunkirk. The War Office knew that the success of this gun would be countered by the enemy by using heavier armour and a more powerful gun, so before the war a tank and anti-tank gun of greater hitting power was designed. However, if after the heavy material losses suffered at Dunkirk some if the two-pounder capacity had been turned over to the production of the new design, the total output of tanks and guns would have been slowed down at a time when invasion threatened and when the Army was practically without equipment. Thus it was necessary to rely entirely on new capacity for the production of a larger and more powerful weapon. This new capacity was secured and the manufacture of the new gun was proceeding apace. They were working on the production of a still larger tank and antitank gun with even greater penetrating power.

The Minister passed to another criticism which he had heard, namely, that Britain showed a certain reticence in sending her armed forces overseas. “With all emphasis at my conWnand I deny this insidious and wholly false suggestion,” he said. The details which he proposed to disclose were intended only as refutation of this suggestion and in no sense as a deprecation of the efforts of those who helped from outside Britain. In the Middle East Command, which comprised the whole of Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Palestine, Syria, Iraq, and Persia half of all the troops were from Britain, rather more than quarter were from Dominions, something over a tenth from India and the balance was made up of colonial and Allied contingents. Composition of Overseas Forces As to the composition of the Eighth Army during this present battle 50 per cent, of all the troops employed were British, nearly one-third were provided by South Africa and New Zealand and more than a tenth by the Indian Empire. There were also a small number of Australian troops and the remainder of the force was completed by units provided by our Polish, Free French and Czech allies. All armoured tank brigades were British. The armoured car regiments were all British except for two from South Africa. Of every 100 men killed or wounded in land fighting since the beginning of the war up to January, 1942, about 70 per cent, had come from this country. Critics should not forget that in naval warfare and, of course, among the mercantile marine the vast majority of casualties had been inflicted upon our seamen and the same was true of the Royal Air Force, which, in spite of the magnificent contributions of the Dominions and Allied forces, suffered far more heavily thzn any of them. The dispatch of British troops to foreign theatres of war depended fundamentally on two things: Firstly, the absolute necessity of defending Britain, the heart of the Empire, and the bridgehead for future operations against Europe and, secondly, availability of shipping. As regards the equipment position in the last 12 months Captain Margesson said it had shown marked improvement but the result was not yet satisfactory. ‘‘Both at home and abroad,” the Minister said, “the year has been one of steady progressive administrative development. The most important development has been the complete reorganisation of the forces in this country. This reorganisation has not been apparent to the general public, nevertheless it has been of the great extent and significance. It was not until the autumn of 1941 that sufficient equipment began to be available to enable us to convert large numbers of infantry units into artillery, armoured, signal, R.O.A.C. and R.A.M.C. units, of which we were so woefully short, but plans have been laid a long time ahead and though reorganisation did not begin until autumn it is possible to carry it out with great speed and much progress has been made. We have formed a large number of new armoured formations, including armoured divisions and army tank brigades. We have strengthened the armoured formations in the Middle .'last by the provision of new units and this process is continuing. “We have formed a number of field regiments of artillery which were required to complete the forces already overseas and to provide corps and army troops for the forces in Britain. We have practically completed the formation of the required number of antitank regiments. We have converted a considerable number of infantry bat-

taiions into anti-aircraft regiments for the field army. A start has been made in organising air-borne troops and we now have a number of parachute and air landing units.” Captain Margesson concluded his speech with a detailed review of the new methods for discovering the special abilities of men joining the Army so that they may be sent to particular units which would make the best :.:e of their qualifications.