SHAPED BY THE ALLIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 February 1943, Page 3

SHAPED BY THE ALLIES

Mr Churchill Reports on Casablanca SAYS ENEMY WILL BE MADE TO BURN AND BLEED KHARKOV ALREADY UNDER LONG-RANGE FIRE • 1 COMMANDS 8 I LONDON, February 11. Reporting on the Casablanca Conference, in a statement to the House of Commons, the British Prime Minister (Mr Winston Churchill) said a plan of action had been agreed upon for the next nine months. Before the expiration of that period the leaders of the Allied nations would meet again. General Eisenhower had been made Allied Commander-in-Chief in North Africa and the Mediterranean, with General Sir H. Alexander as Deputy Commander-in-Chief. Admiral of the Fleet Sir Andrew Cunningham has been appointed to the command of all Allied sea forces in the Mediterranean and Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder to the command of Allied air forces. Lieutenant-General Eisenhower has been promoted by President Roosevelt to full general. The vacancy created by General Alexander’s new appointment is to be filled by General Sir H. Maitland Wilson, now in ’ command of the Allied armies in Persia and Iraq. At Casablanca, Mr Churchill said, it had been determined to engage the enemy forces on land and sea and in the air on the greatest possible scale and at the earliest moment possible in order to draw away from Russia the greatest possible proportion of the Axis fighting strength. The enemy would be made to burn and bleed in the same way he was being made to burn and bleed in Russia. THE U-BOAT CAMPAIGN This, Mr Churchill said, was not going to be easy. The United Nations had to cross the seas to engage the enemy and it was for that reason that the Chiefs of Staff had been instructed, at Casablanca, to give priority in all their plans to the campaign against the U-boats. In that campaign we were holding our own and more than holding our own. Shipping losses during the last two months had been lower than during the preceding year and the United Nations now had 1| million - tons of shipping more than they had six months ago. Losses suffered by Allied troop convoys at the hands of the U-boats, Mr Churchill said, had been remarkably low. Out of three million men conveyed by sea, fewer than 1,400 had been killed, drowned or reported missing. The position was that the chances were 2,200 to one against Allied troops being drowned while being conveyed by sea. The first object of the Allies, Mr Churchill said, was to draw all possible enemy forces away from Russia and to give Russia the utmost aid. The defeat of Hitler must be given priority over the decisive stage cf the war against Japan, but the latter country meantime would be kept fully occupied. With the Western Axis Powers defeated the whole forces of the United Nations would be concentrated against Japan until she too was brought to unconditional surrender. OUTLOOK IN TUNISIA After speaking of his visit to Tripoli and paying a tribute to the Eighth Army, Mr Churchill said there were serious battles still to be fought before the enemy was cleared out of Tunisia. The Axis forces there, including Rommel’s, were estimated to number about a quarter of a million men. The campaign in North Africa was being fought in conditions very costly to the enemy and by no means disadvantageous to the Allies. Mr Churchill concluded with an assurance that no vestige of Nazi or Fascist power or of the Japanese war plotters “will be left by us when the work is done, as done it will be.’’ ALLIED AND ENEMY COMMENT Mr Churchill’s report on the Casablanca Conference has been received with great enthusiasm by the United Nations and has aroused keen interest elsewhere. In America the papers came out with long reports of his statement. All welcome the disclosure that the Casablanca Conference resulted in a complete plan of action. The Berlin radio picked out Mr Churchill’s reference to U-boats for comment. Of his announcement that General Eisenhower has been appointed Commander-in-Chief in North Africa, Berlin said it showed the real result of Casablanca—a British defeat. In Britain and in America the appointment of General Eisenhower has been warmly welcomed as reflecting the best possible degree of Anglo-American co-operation, mot only now, but for future moves.