“WAVELL SHIFT”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 July 1941, Page 5

“WAVELL SHIFT”

ATTRIBUTED TO AUSTRALIAN RESENTMENT OVER LOSS OF CYRENAICA. .ALLEGED NEGLECT OF ADVICE. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) NEW YORK, July 3. Under the heading: “The Wavell shift Menzies’ idea,” the “New York Post” published yesterday the following Associated Press of America message from London: “Australian criticism of General Wavell's conduct of the Libya campaign precipitated the shake-up. From Australian sources it was learned that the resentment of the Prime Minister, Mr R. G. Menzies, was an important factor in General Wavell’s shift. “Australian staff officers, these sources said, advised General Wavell against his defensive dispositions after his army had ' run the Italians from Cyrenaica. General Wavell was reported to have replied that 300 miles of desert between his army and the Axis troops in Tripoli would hold any enemy advance to small units. As a result the western defences of Cyrenaica were reduced to release troops for Greece. The Germans hit the British screen and they swept the British from the territory, the taking of which had cost hundreds of Australian lives.”