NOTES ON THE WAR

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 52, Issue 3263, 14 May 1943, Page 7

NOTES ON THE WAR

LAST FIGHT IN AFRICA

THREE-YEAR CAMPAIGN MAY 10 A FATEFUL DATE The long fight in Africa, with campaigns lasting nearly three years, is almost over. All that remains of the Axis forces that once threatened the Nile and tne Suez Canal is a few scattered remnants in “pockets *of resistance” in Northern Tunisia and a larger block in the Cape Lon Peninsula, the last of the ‘‘Tunnisian tip.” In this hour of rejoicing for the Allies it is well to remember the date May 10—as the anniversary of other important events in the war, not all so happy. On May 10, 1940, the ■Germans invaded Western Europe, through Holland and Belgium, and within a mdnth had practically crushed all resistance, except that of Britain.

On May 10, 1941, London suffered its worst air raid, with damage to Westminster Abbey, the Houses, of Parliament, and the- British Museum. But this raid marked the real end of the Battle of Britain, the last savage, despairing effort in Hitler’s air blitz.

On the same date Rudolf' Hess, Hitler’s henchman, flew in Britain, landing in Scotland. On May 10, 1942. the Battle of the Coral Sea, the first check to Japan’s southward march in the Pacific, was in progress.

Decisive Battle

This last great battle of Tunisia should rank in history among the decisive battles of the world, opening to the Allies, as it does, the Mediterranean and the way to carry the war into Europe. It is justly described as a triumph in every way- for the Allies. They were faced by a large, picked force of the enemy, including some of the veterans of the Russian campaign, and a fortified line, heavily manned and deemed by the fkxis leaders themselves virtually impregnable. This line was breached in a series of soldiers’ battles in which the Allies proved their superiority man to man. An overwhelming air force, working in perfect co-ordination with the ground forces, and the admirable combination of' all arms, helped to complete a model operation in the art of warfare. The Tunisian battle is the counterpart to the Axis opeia-tio-ns in the Balkans and Greece in 1941, admitted by Allied expert observers to have been a campaign conducted with great skill by the German High Command. The enemy in Greece had every superiority numbers, armour and air power and the

results were not dissimilar. Just as the R.A.F. was driven out' of Greece and -Crete because- it lacked airfields and their defences, so the Luftwaffe has abandoned Tunisia altogether, because it has nowhere to land there, safe from attack, and its Sicilian ail fields have been immobilised by Allied raids. The difference is that Allied sea power in the case of Greece and Crete saved a large proportion of the Allied land forces, though at great cost. There is no such hope of evacuation for the remnants of the Axis forces in Tunisia. They must either surrender or be destroyed piecemeal. Over 50,00'0' have already surrendered. This is a military sitution, like that of the Germans at Stalingrad, where further resistance serves no useful purpose. Thus is ending chapter of military history on which all the nations that took part in it, even the Germans and Italians, can look-back with respectful memories. It was a soldiers’ war—and that, of course, includes the air forces which did their job so well —from start to finish. It will be looked on by the Eighth Army, with its inherent sporting spirit, as something like a great series of test matches on a tremendous Rugby field, a thousand miles long. The Eighth Army had its' ups and downs and was hard put to it to defend its goal line at El Alamein. But it persevered and took its opponents’ measure, learning much by bitter experience, and then broke away and chased the ball right down to the opposite goal in .Tunisia, and there, after a hard tussle, won the final test and the rubber. It was a fitting gesture that General Alexander should arrange for an Eighth Army tank unit to take part in the last passing rush for the final try in the streets of Tunis City—a remarkable run of over a thousand miles, half-way along the North African boast. There may be harder fighting to come in the fields of Europe, but General Eisenhower’s team is probably now the best fighting force in the world, trained like Caesar’s Tenth Legion, Napoleon’s Old Guard, and i Wellington’s Peninsula veterans, in I tne bn-d school of war, and fitted and 1 equipped to tackle anything in its • patn.

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