PLAN ABANDONED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20917, 17 October 1942, Page 5

PLAN ABANDONED

NEAR EAST INVASION AXIS “MISSED THE BUS” AIR FORCES WITHDRAWN (By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (3 p.m.) NEW YORK. Oct. 15. Seeking corroboration of reports to Allied military intelligence sources in Istanbul indicating that the Germans have abandoned .their plan to invade the Near East from Aegean bases, the New York Times’ correspondent at Smyrna says he received evidence from reliable quarters that an Axis attack on this area is impossible this autumn and that the entire Near East is probably secure until the spring of 1943. The correspondent adds that reports received in Smyrna from German air bases at Lesbos, Chios, and Samos disclosed that I.he Germans and Italians have wiihdrawn all but skeleton garrison forces from the Greek islands and the Dodecanese.

Allied military and naval circles say that the Germans committed their gravest error since the failure of the attemot to invade England after the collapse of France when last May thev failed to attack the weak defences of Syria and Palestine simultaneously with the Libyan offensive. Only the Turks were ready last May and an operation aimed across Syria and Iraq’s oil and into Palestine to sever the Allied communications was feasible.