ROMMEL’S PORTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 November 1942, Page 3

ROMMEL’S PORTS

HOPES OF CONVERGING ATTACK FROM EAST & WEST NAVAL & OTHER FACTORS. EVIDENCE OF FULL ALLIED ACCORD. (Special P.A. Correspondent.) LONDON, November 11. Rommel’s chief ports are Benghazi, and Tripoli ,and the former may be the Eighth Army’s objective, and the latter the objective of the Anglo-Am-erican forces in the west. There are naturally hopes that Rommel can be squeezed between the two, but it is borne in mind that this may be easier said than done. Keypoints are Tunis, Bizerta, and the narrow strait between Cicily and Tunis, which has previously been the greatest danger for the convoys to Malta. Sardina and Sicily, on which are based Axis air power, remain at least for the time being, a serious threat, while air clashes over the narrows may be expected. Meanwhile, Hitler must have plans for bolstering up Rommel. The naval implication of the North African move is regarded as concerning the future more than the immediate present. It will have very great strategical importance for further developments against the Axis. The acquisition of naval and of air bases is linked up, but a note of caution is being sounded that the restoration of convoy routes through the Mediterranean may take time, for free-„ dom for Allied warships has first to be established, which implies the destruction of enemy forces. The French fleet is still a query, and it is notable that some of the chief resistance to the present operations has come from French naval men who hold bitter memories of the action taken against the French fleet by Britain after the capitulation of France. The “Manchester Guardian’s” political correspondent says that politically Vichy is now in a state of confusion. Gemany’s preponderant demand is that Vichy should fight the British and Americans, and use the _ fleet in the German service, for Petain and Laval wijl have to make a. full fighting ally of Germany to maintain their regime. “This they cannot do. The extent of their authority over the armed forces has yet to be seen,” the paper says. One outcome of the rout of Rommel’s armv is that any German threat against Turkey has greatly diminished, and she is also better able to resist German pressure. Much attention is being directed 1.0 M. Stalin’s recent speech. The Moscow correspondent of “The Times” reports that it has swept away all doubts in the Russians’ mind that the differences in ideology between Britain and America and the Soviet Union were an obstacle to the full mobilisation and employment of the Allies’ total strength; while the speech was a reminder that inter-Allied relations are improving instead of growing worse. Though M. Stalin did not mince words when he attributed the German successes this year to the absence of a, second front, he gave no sanction to the idea that ideological differences were causing the delay, the eorres-1 pondent says.