Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1941. A GREAT CONTRIBUTION.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 December 1941, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1941. A GREAT CONTRIBUTION.

yyilEN the time comes for a fuller publication of the facts than can be expected at present, those who are competent to deal with the questions involved may have much that is o interest to say about the planning and conduct of Hie pi esent offensive in Libya. Meantime the report by Major-General Freyberg, extracts from which were published yesterday, has thrown a good deal of new light on the progress of the campaign to a stage (the report was received on December 8) from which it has since developed with promise.

General Freyberg is notably frank in his references to the strength of the enemy and the difficulties which had to be overcome. He observes, for instance, that:

Optimistic hopes of quick victory were doomed to ment because the armoured battle was not conclusive, The enemy repair and recovery organisation was excellent. Oni the other. our tank resources are growing, and I am confident tha German armoured forces in Libya will be neutralised.

In the matter of armoured support and still more in that of air support, conditions in Libya have shown a great nnpioie ment on those in which our troops and others fought in Greece and Crete, and General Freyberg sags in an early passage of his report that every care was taken “not to expose vulnerable columns to German armoured divisions.’ It is also, clear, however, that at stages of the battle in Libya some of the British Imperial forces, amongst them the New Zealanders, found themselves exposed, without adequate suppoit, to attack by powerful enemy armoured formations, The report makes it clear that lack of reserves accounted for the New Zealanders being forced out of Sidi Rezegh and other positions in the Tobruk corridor, in the closing days of November, and suffering very heavy losses.

Much as these losses are to be deplored and tragic as they are from our standpoint, it will be time enough to form definite conclusions when all the facts have been brought to light. It certainly is not to be assumed as a matter of course that undue risks were taken in launching the Libyan offensive at the time selected or that it was launched with insufficient preparation. Account has to be taken of more than local circumstances. It has been suggested, for instance, that the British attacks which speedily compelled General Rommel to send out an urgent call for air reinforcements may have been of very material assistance to the Russians in their southern offensive which has now extended and is developing so well over a great part of the Eastern front.

Meantime it is clear that the New Zealand Division,* though at no light cost, has given signal proof of its martial quality. Having said that the troops under his command have been fighting almost entirely against Germans in Libya—panzer divisions and motorised infantry—General Freyberg adds, in a concluding passage:—

It is fair to claim that the part played by the Division to date has destroyed a large portion of the German force, together with a great deal of their equipment and material, and it will prove a great contribution in the main Libyan campaign, which still proceeds.

As commander of the New Zealand Division, General Freyberg very properly has made these claims in studiously moderate terms. Observations by senior commanders and others upon whom no such restraint is imposed have already shown how well these claims are justified.