The Evening Star TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1942. BATTLE OF SUPPLY.

Evening Star, Issue 24294, 8 September 1942, Page 2

The Evening Star TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1942. BATTLE OF SUPPLY.

Whkx Mr Wendell Willkie visited the battlefield in Egypt he was sufficiently impressed by what he saw to make tho statement: “The happenings here of the past two or three days are significant, perhaps the turning point of the war. I think the Boche has been stopped.” But, while the American Republican leader was confident of the outcome of the desert struggle, he realised in his discerning way that if the Allies possessed raoro material it would) not be a case merely of “stopping the Boche,” but of driving him clean out of Egypt for'all time and disintegrating his forces. An achievement of that nature will probably have to come before full weight can he thrown into the task of helping tho Russians in the Caucasus. Although tho Allied military chiefs will ho,thoroughly aware of the position, and most likely have not hesitated to bring their needs to the notice of the production experts, the call for more tanks, planes, and guns, coming from a man like Mr Willkie, should prove a not inconsiderable spur to further effort. Now that the menace to shipping is apparently on tho decline, it should be possible in the months immediately ahead to despatch to the Middle East enough equipment to put an end to the Axis .ambitions in regard to the Nile Delta and the Suez Canal. As matters stand, it!seems that a good deal has been accomplished in building up artillery strength, for British guns have played a big part in forcing Rommel to give up his first assault and fall back to prepared lines. Tanks and! bombers have their uses in modem warfare, but it is doubtful if any weapon is more effective than concentrated and accurate artillery fire. Russia has much graver problems of supply than the Allies in the Middle East.’ She not only suffers from the shipping difficulties faced by the friendly Powers trying to aid her, hut she has also lost tremendous slices of her industrial territory. The steady enemy march through Southern Russia has cut off ono source of supply after another, and l , even if Stalingrad is held, the victory, while more than useful for strategic reasons principally concerned with the protection of the Volga and the denial of winter quarters to the invading Hun, would not enable the great industries of the “Steel City” to function to anything like their normal extent. Production developments behind the Volga and in the Urals will help the Soviet army to fight* on, if only in a semi-guerrilla capacity, hut the attainment of a full war effort is largely dependent on tho availability of outside supplies. Throughout tho summer months Britain and America- have been making big sacrifices both in shipping and in diversion of material that could have been used to advantage elsewhere in order to supply the Soviet war machine by the Arctic route. Murmansk, however, has been bombed into uselessness, and, as winter approaches. Archangel will he still more inaccessible. Everything points to the development of the Persian Gulf route and the use of land transport through Iraq and Iran for materials of all kinds—and perhaps, when the time is ripe, for men.