The Evening Star THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1942. WESTERN DESERT ACTIVITY.

Evening Star, Issue 24290, 3 September 1942, Page 4

The Evening Star THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1942. WESTERN DESERT ACTIVITY.

To-day’s news of the latest developments in Egypt throws a more reassuring light on Field-Marshal Jloimnel’s assault on the southern sector of the El Alamein line than was indicated in yesterday’s report of an eight-mile advance. At this point Rommel has apparently moved into what is regarded merely as a huge no-man’s-land, and has exposed his forces to the weakening influence of concentrated Allied l artillery and air attacks. It is expected that General Montgomery, the new commander of the Eighth Army, will at the appropriate moment fully engage the enemy in armoured fighting, bringing into practice the tactics evolved during the lull since the Axis forces were first halted short of El Alamein, and framed in accordance with the correctives applied as a result of the lessons learned in Libya. The Allied Army is stated to be in great heart, refreshed, reinforced, and eager for action, while the official attitude, is realistic rather than optimistic or pessimistic. There can be no better approach to the forthcoming military activities in Egypt._ This country is of tremendous strategic importance, and its loss, though, perhaps not fatal to the Allied cause, would no doubt prolong the whole struggle in Europe and seriously hinder the efforts that should eventually be made to help the Russians in the Southern Caucasus. To what extent has Rommel been reinforced? The German Field-Marshal, as wo know only too well, is a great soldier and a wily tactician. He is dashing but by no means reckless. Should be decide to follow up his thrust on the southern sector with a general and sustained! offensive, '.he will throw a formidable weight of men and metal into the fray. If there is a weak point in his armour, it will lie in that his specially-trained Afrika Korps suffered heavy losses in the Libyan campaign and! in the earlier fighting across the Egyptian frontier. He will not expect the Italian infantrymen to measure up to the standard of German efficiency. Previous reports supply evidence that he has been tapping every possible source for German reinforcements, and has drawn extensively on the garrisons in Greece and Crete. But even these presumably .well-trained soldiers are not likely to be of the calibre of his Afrika ICorps specialists, who were hardened and acclimatised) to desert warfare. Although Rommel has been able to fly over a certain number of reinforcements of men, he will have found that the acquisition of heavy material by air is a more difficult proposition. Besides which, he has had to contend with almost perpetual hammerings from the Allied air forces, the violence of which will increase as the Axis troops emerge from their dugouts and trenches and strive to press on. Much satisfaction lies in the thought that British troops will never again have to fight inadequately supported from the air.