CONTEST FOR POWER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 November 1942, Page 4

CONTEST FOR POWER

ROMMEL & HIS ENEMIES ISSUES AT THE MUNICH CONFERENCES. DEMAND FOR “SUPREME SOUTHERN COMMAND” (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.10 p.m.) LONDON, November 17. _ The long conferences Rommel is having in Munich with Hitler and others are likely to affect not only Rommel’s own career, but also the composition of the entire Axis General Staff, says Reuter’s correspondent on the German frontier. More news from Germany about the drama being enacted around the personality of Rommel shows that, the enemies of the much-boosted chief of the Afrika Korps are now raising their heads, encouraged by his failure in Egypt. Generals and party officials who have long been envious of his success have now openly turned against him causing a crisis in the General Staff. Nothing about this has so far leaked out to the German public, who still regard Rommel as an invincible national hero and are waiting for him to work a miraculous come-back m Africa. Rommel, in the Munich discussions, repeated his demand for a “supreme southern command, which would comprise Italy, Africa, Sardinia and Corsica and also South France. General Kesselring is Rommel’s greatest opponent. The question most interesting to German militarists is whether Kesselring, protected by Goering, can assert himself against Rommel, protected by Hitler.

PURSUIT PROBLEMS THE OUTLOOK IN LIBYA. ROMMEL MAY FIGHT J AGAIN. (Received This Day, 11.50 a.m.) LONDON, November 17. “The further west the enemy goes, the harder it will be for us to deliver a knock-out blow on Rommel's forces,' says the Cairo correspondent of the National Broadcasting Corporation. “There are signs that Rommel is going to fight again. The bulk of his army has gone along the coast road and the chances are that Rommel may pick up extra supplies and equipment at Benghazi from ships which have been coming in there during the past week. Rommel will try to make a stand with the hope of holding us up for the longest possible period. The Germans are going to give us a fight for our money before we close the gap between the Eighth Army and the forces moving into Tunisia.” German and Italian communiques report fierce fighting yesterday between Derna and Benghazi.