Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1941. PROSPECTS IN LIBYA.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 December 1941, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1941. PROSPECTS IN LIBYA.

MUCH evidently has been accomplished by the British and 11 Imperial land forces in Libya, with splendid air and naval support, towards the complete defeat ol the enemy foices to which they stand opposed. Powerful enemy mechanised formations have l been in g'reat part broken and destroyed and though the position reached is complex, it is of good pionuse. With the remaining' enemy forces in part actually encircled and threatened with further encirclement, the principal immediate question appears to concern the ability of some of these remnants to effect a westward withdrawal.

Account has to be taken here not only of the British and Imperial forces, including the New Zealanders, in close contact with the enemy, but with the columns which have advanced across the desert far to the south and were reported recently to have reached the Gulf of Sidra, south of Benghazi. These columns are on or within easy striking distance of the enemy s line of retreat from Cyrenaica, and of the route which would have to be followed by any enemy reinforcements dispatched from Tripoli.

It has been indicated recently that the enemy has no considerable reserve forces between Tripoli and Cyrenaica, so that victory over the Axis troops retiring westward from the Gazala region would be likely to determine the fate of the campaign. The possibility still exists, however, that the enemy may be able to add considerably to his forces in Western Libya should Vichy place the French North African colonies and the French fleet at the disposal of the Nazis. It has been observed that in that event the fighting in Cyrenaica would no longer be an affair by itself, but would become one element in a far bigger strategical, problem.

Although there assuredly is no guarantee that the men of Vichy will not be guilty of this betrayal, but rather every likelihood that they will, there fortunately is every indication also that, at the cost of much hard fighting, advanced progress has been made towards the annihilation of the Axis forces in Cyrenaica. It is apparently a rather ragged remnant of these forces that is now endeavouring to retreat through western Cyrenaica and some of the latest reports state that the enemy withdrawal is tending to become disorderly.