NORTH AFRICAN WELTING POT

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 6, Issue 50, 23 February 1943, Page 4

NORTH AFRICAN WELTING POT

ALiL eyes, and especially those of America are focussed upon the Western Tunisian front, where in the face of the further German advance and the substantial American loss of men and material, a state of flux appears to. have developed . Undoubtedly the American divisions have suffered a severe reverse and the change in the High Command, for a more seasoned veteran is generally recognised as an omen charged with better potentialities. The extraordinary energy of the Eighth Army pushing up from the Libr' yan border is in direct contrast to the picture on the west where it would appear likely that Rommel recognised the chances of victory against fresher troops direct from the English training camps. Be that as it may the fact remains that he employed his crack panzers to smash through the American front, showing all too plainly his great anxiety to maintain and improve his foothold in the south and thus prevent any action against the rear of the vital Mareth 'Line. Rommel's reported serious illness, may be taken as part of the strategy to mislead the Allied Commanders into possible oversights in the belief that an officer of less renoun was opposed to them. No war office (least of all the Nazi) is likely to broadcast the indisposition of one of its most celebrated generals unless it has a motive in so doing. It would seem that the Nazis definitely had. No, the truth is that Rommel has made a desperate and successful bid to prevent the junction of the First Army's outposts and the warriors now pouring in from Libyan desert. It would seem too, that for this purpose he was prepared to utilise his finest and most tested men in order to ensure its success. That he has succeeded means possibly the prolongation of the North African .contest for another six months—a thought all the; more bitter in view of the initial waste of opportunities when the expeditionary force effected its first surprise landing at Algiers and Oran. Nazi strategy may now clearly be said to define the consolidation of the captured American strong positions in the west and the determined defence of the Mareth Line in the face of the Eighth Army's advance on the East. Rommel to all intents and purposes is prepared to make a heavy bid to maintain the last precarious foothold in Africa, still under Axis dominance.