CHANCES LOST

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 April 1941, Page 5

CHANCES LOST

ITALIAN FAILURE TO USE STRONG FORCES BRILLIANT BRITISH TACTICS. RAPID SHIPPING OF SMALL UNITS: (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, April 15. The Addis Ababa correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” says that now the victory has been gained in East Africa it can be revealed that the boot might have been on the other foot but for the brilliant policy in the opening weeks of the campaign.

Though the Italian forces in East Africa were about a quarter of a million, the British strength in the Sudan, British Somaliland and Kenya was'not comparable. The Italians at any time between .Tune and September could have made a sortie with the odds heavily in favour of their getting wherever they wanted.

The British officials in the Sudan were worried that the Italians might follow up the July successes after capturing Kassala, Gallabat and the other frontier positions by a mechanised push against Khartoum and Atbara, which is the 'Sudan’s vital transport centre. This might have resulted in the loss of the country within a matter of days. The secret of the avoidance of disaster by the British lay in the commanders’ aggressive patrolling and rapid shifting of small forces, leading the enemy to believe that the opposition was tenfold the actual strength even while machine-guns were being mounted in Khartoum and tank traps were being' dug round the city.

A British company was moved to the frontier and the Italians immediately began referring to a British division opposing them. A couple of Bren-gun carriers were moved up and the Italians transformed them into squadrons of tanks. A secret society of patriots in Kassala aided the bluff by exaggerating to the sky the extent of the British strength.

By the end of 1940 the Italians were unable to strike, which was the moment for the British offensive.

Addis Ababa, the correspondent remarks, was won equally on the heights of Keren as on the sands of Somaliland, because our pressure in the heart of Eritrea, where the Italians had always thought it safe to make a stand, forced them to divert from Addis Ababa their complete reserves of troops and almost all their guns.