The Wanganui Chronicle. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1943. THE TUNISIAN CAMPAIGN

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 41, 19 February 1943, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1943. THE TUNISIAN CAMPAIGN

CONDITIONS in Tunisia are not yet favourable for a further attack in strength by the Allies. If the Germans and Italians can register some effective blows against, the American and British forces while they are in the process of preparing for the next leap forward, that new movement will be delayed. It would be unwise for the Americans to hang on to each piece of territory simply because they have occupied it once: at the moment territory doesn’t matter, but hitting-power does. It, should be, and. fortunately clearly is, the aim of General Eisenhower to preserve the latter and to concede even valuable territory.

The Tunisian campaign, however, is now in such a condition that its being brought, to a conclusion must be regarded as incidental to the larger strategy of the Mediterranean conflict. The Allies are laying their plans to this end in accordance with that view. The British submarines are operating in strength and with success in the Mediterranean, reducing the flow of supplies to Tunisia (although as Admiral Cunningham, has observed, too much is still getting across this ninety-mile passage). But shipping tonnage is being reduced by sinkings and that is part of the softening process which must precede the launching of the further move in the great campaign. The. blockade, of the Italian and other coasts is dislocating the whole of the military effort that the enemy is taking in Southern Europe. Equally important is the extension of the bombing operations to Sicily and Southern Italy. These dovetail into the same operations which are being pursued further to the west, from the United Kingdom. The American and the Royal Air Forces are bombing German railway and industrial targets, and French railway targets, and occasionally heavy raids are made against the transport system and the munitions works that are situated in Northern Italy. This softening process is not going to pay dividends immediately; it will take a long time before the full extent to which it pays is revealed. Indeed, the full value of the work now being done will only be seen when the attack upon Europe is launched. The Tunisian campaign must lie concluded while this softening process is going on, but it would be wrong to draw the conclusion that this contest is not affecting conditions in other areas. It. is making a real contribution to the Russian campaign. It. was announced recently that, one-fifth of the Luftwaffe’s single-seater fighter force is in Tunisia, many machines having come from Russia. Of the German fighter force, one-half is pinned down to defending the Western Front. The Russians arc. therefore, already being assisted in a material way by reason of the seven-tenths of the enemy’s fighter air force being drawn off the, Eastern Front. The Germans will be compelled to keep to the resolution to extend the life of African campaign as long as possible in order to set back the Allied time schedule for striking at, the under-belly of Europe, to use Churchill’s graphic phrase.