POSITION OF TUNISIA

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 6, Issue 45, 5 February 1943, Page 3

POSITION OF TUNISIA

AXIS STAND IN AFRICA

HISTORIC BATTLEGROUND While the Red Army is. steadil.v driving into the Axis front in Russia at more than a score of points, tire Axis is creating a new front in North Africa for ;the defence' of,its last, but- far from least, foothold on the Southern Mediterranean coast." There seems hardly any doubt now that Rommel is quitting Tripolitania and its capital and port, Tripoli, to seek refuge with the 1 rest of the Axis forces under General von Arnheim in Tunisia, who has sue cccded General Nehring -and *is alrcadjr trying to create more elbowroom for the arrival of .Rommel with the remnants of his Afrikn Korps. The movements of the opposing forces in North Africa have been well likened in the first place to n race for position, and the first heat may be admitted, to have gone to the Axis in securing the best of' Tunisia to the north and east. The British First Army's sprint for the key points of Bizerta and Tunis were beaten-only a short head, but it was beaten, and the Axis now holds j for the moment the kc.vs to the J Central Mediterranean. I

Writing of Tunisia in the New York Times of November 12, before the race had been decided, Hanson Baldwin says: "Tt was a racc for high stakes. Tunisia is the key to 'the Central Mediterranean. For through its bottleneck ithe main coastal rail and road routes link North-west and North-east Africa; its reaching promontory of Cape Bon is less than ninety miles across the Sicilian Channel from Italian Sicily; it commands the Italian base art Tripo.'i in Libya, and in Tunisia is the splendid naval base of Bizerta, and numerous' airfields. Sfax, Gabes, Bizarca, Tunis, etc., all within easy range of Sicily, Italy and British Malta. If the Germans consolidate a strong position there, the fighting in North Africa has, just started Old Battleground Through the centuries, Tunisia, though the name is modern, has been a battleground. Here lay Carthage, from which Rome was threatened by Hannibal, and here on the. field of Zama he was decisively defeated by Scipio Africanus. Carthage was destroyed—razed to the ground • —less than, sixty years later, in 14. B.C. It was in Tunisia that Julius Caesar in the Bailie of Thapsus, ended the 1 Civil War and the Roman Republic. Carthage revived under the Roman Empire and became famous as a centre of Christianity with St. Augustine as the leading figure. It was sacked by the Vandals, A.'D--439, but was recovered by the gre'it General Belisarius, given first place in military history by Field-Mar-shall Wavell, centuries after. I It was finally lost to' the. Arabs in their conquest of North Africa, j A.D. 648-669. It was later held by Charlemagne and again by Charles V. of Spain. It Avas a leading base of the famous Barbary pirates, the scourge of the seas for centuries, until Britain and the United Stai.es' cleaned them up. Bizerta's Defences Under the French, Tunisia had always been heavily garrisoned with French troops, French Legionaires. and colonial corps. Bizerta possesses a great natural harbour. I«t is, approached from the J "sea by a narrow but easily navigable channel, which .opens out into Lake Bizerta, of sufficient depth and expanse to accommodate a large lleet. Here Wrangel's White Russian Fleet was interned and mouldered for years, and into Bizerta later steamed, the remnants of the: Republican navy of Spain in the recent civil war. Bizerta is heavily fortified, but like Singapore, mainly towards the sea. Ll is or was, more vulnerable from the land. Along the entire. Tunisian coastline there are forts here and there, especially at Cape Bon, the tip of Tunisia. The defences on the landward side, of the coastal block held by the Axis are a series of maintain heights to the north and waterless plains in ithe centre, with another range of hills in -the south side inside the boundary separating Tunisia and Tripolitania. Here the French erected the Mareth Line—or "Little Maginot Line" —as a protection against attack from the east. The principal railways and roads run along the coast connecting Bizerta and Tunis with Sousse, Sfax and Gabes. From this backbone railway spur lines run westward into the interior, two northern ones connecting with the Algerian railway system. • It is along these lines that the Germans are endeavouring to make

more room for themselves by aittacks on strategic heights and road junctions. They seem to have achieved at least a limited success, and now hold, if not the most, at least the best, of Tunisia, practically all the fertile 1 and food-producing areas leaving the Allies the. rougher country, mountains, dere.st and gravel pi aii}. If Rommel succeeds in getting into Tunisia with anything like an army he will have the Mareth Line, which is really formidable, to* defend an attack by the Eighth Army from the; cast. To the west lie the Matmat Ranges* a strong natural barrier and ito the south is the Sahara- Ghadames, in the extreme south at the point where Algeria, Tunisia and Tripoli'tania meet, is reported to be; still in Italian hands;

after earlier references from which it might be assumed that the French had occup-icd it.. One Axis Weakness Summing up, one might say that the Axis position in Tunisia is a strong one, capable of prolonged resistance, except for one condition. This is the line of communication and supply with Axis Europe. This is already suffering severely from Allied attacks from the air, and the surface, and from under the sea. If the strategic position of. the Axis, with Sicily, Sardinia and lialv .so conveniently near, is* superior to that of the Allies, the greater strength of the Allies at sea and in the air probably more than neutralise, the strategic advantage. With Tripoli in Allied hands and

Malta to the east, ancl the Algerian ports of Bona, Phllippeville and Bougie to the west, with the Algerian ancl Western. Tunisian airfields, now being completed, the; Alt lies should be able to make the position of the Axis in Tunisia very uncomfortable—even precarious..

At the same time the pounding of the R.A.F. over Nopth-western Europe from the Channel to Berlin is drawing much of the. limited strength of the Luftwaffe away from where it is needed most, against Russia and in North .Africa. On the whole, therefore, it. may be reasonable to expect a final decision in North Africa earlier than a month ago seemed possible. The mosii: for-

midable delaying agent remains the

U-boat, in this war, as in the last, the. Allies' Public Enemy No. 1.