OUTFLANKING DAKAR

Marlborough Express, Volume LXXVI, Issue 247, 20 October 1942, Page 5

OUTFLANKING DAKAR

SIGNIFICANCE OF LIBERIAN MOVE.

P.A. Gable.

NEW YORK, Oct. 19.

"There has been no official explanation of the landing of American troops in Liberia," observes the New York Times, "though it coincides with reports that German submarines are operating against Allied convoy routes from Cape Palmas, just across the border of eastern Liberia. Vichy will not fail to note that Monrovia is only 750 air miles from Dakar. "Berlin says that Liberia will soon join the United Nations. In that event, French West Africa will be entirely blocked off in the south-east by territory hostile to Germany. It is not surprising that German propaganda is nervous about Dakar and its hinterland, or that Hitler is exertihg the utmost pressure to obtain military control of the area. "Liberia is the closest we have come to Dakar, although the British at Freetown are even closer, but the landing is> apparentiy the latest of a series of bridgeheads we have flung around the Gulf of Guinea. The Axis has reported American tro'cps in the Gold Coast, Nigeria, Brazzaville, French Equatorial Africa, and Leopoldville. The* military resources of this vast secticn are now very considerable, even without an influx of Americans. "The map reveals how completely the Axis flank and rear in North Africa, and Vichy's stronghold, Dakar, lie open to an advance from the south."