An Attack on Gibraltar?

Southland Times, Issue 24244, 30 September 1940, Page 4

An Attack on Gibraltar?

IT IS reported from Rome this morning that officials of the Italian Government are predicting the early entry of Spain into the war. Predictions by the Italians have proved somewhat oversanguine in the past, and there is still no definite indication that General Franco is willing to drive his war-weary people into the trenches once more.. Nevertheless, recent events have suggested that if Hitler is forced to abandon hope of a successful invasion of Britain he may attempt to create a theatre of war in the western, as well as the eastern, Mediterranean in an effort to break British sea power in the whole of that region. The New York HeraldTribune has quoted “a responsible European Government” as its authority for saying that this move has already been decided on and that 26 German divisions are now waiting at Bordeaux and Biarritz for orders to move southwards against Gibraltar. If this attack were made, with Franco’s assistance, it would probably be accompanied by an attempt to invade Portugal, for while Portugal remained friendly towards Britain the loss of Gibraltar alone would not prevent the British Navy from standing guard on the western outlet of the Mediterranean. Not that the loss of Gibraltar is by any means a foregone conclusion; the fortress has never been regarded as invulnerable, but its armaments have been greatly strengthened and it could withstand a siege for an indefinite period. According to the New York paper the Nazis’ object in attempting to take Gibraltar would be to “bottle up the Royal Navy,” meaning presumably the main body of the Mediterranean Fleet which is now based on Alexandria. This supposition overlooks the fact that while Britain retains control of the Red Sea even the worst possible disaster in the Mediterranean could not prevent the Fleet from withdrawing to the Indian Ocean. More probably Hitler’s objective in attacking Gibraltar would be to gain access to French North and West Africa. From these

colonies he could gain some relief from the blockade, he could harass Britain’s sea communications and make the task of .supplying the British armies in the Middle East immensely more difficult, and perhaps he could even launch a land campaign against the belt of British and Free French possessions which now extends right across the African continent. It is possible, as The New York Herald-Tribune has suggested, that any threat to North Africa would free the French colonies from loyalty to Vichy and bring them finally to Britain’s side. But the reception given at Dakar to units of the British and French naval forces (which alone are saving the French colonies from the greedy hands of the Axis Powers) indicates that not too much should be expected from the Blench in their present bitter and treacherous mood. In any case Hitler’s journey south would be an arduous one, and its accomplishment would leave his main problem—that of defeating British sea power with his own land powerstill unsolved.