ROMMEL OUTWITTED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 April 1943, Page 3

ROMMEL OUTWITTED

GENERAL MONTGOMERY’S FEAT DISCUSSION IN LONDON. TENSE DAYS IN PROSPECT. (By Telegraph—Press Association —-Copyright) . LONDON, April 11. The capture of Sfax four days after - the break-through at Wadi el Akarit 1 has been welcomed as great news, and ' General Montgomery’s victory at the ' Wadi and the following pursuit have ■ been described as “the most brilliant single operation that the Eighth Army • has so far performed.” The opinion is ■ held that Montgomery outwitted Rom- • mel, who had hoped to impose a great- 1 er delay on the Eighth Army at that 1 point, and that by the speedy regroup- 1 ing and the launching of the attack in 1 pitch darkness, Montgomery surprised ’ and then routed Rommel. J. L. Garvin, writing in the “Sunday Express,” has ’ described this action as “an extraordinary feat.” He also made the observation that the • Aliled headquarters in Tunisia now 1 have three objectives: First, to wreck as much as possible of Rommel’s strength during retreat; secondly, to intercept the retreat, if possible, somewhere between Sfax and Sousse; or, thirdly, to bring von Arnim and Rom- 1 mel separately to battle before they can. effect and consolidate a full junction in the north. “If Rommel and von Arnim together can concentrate in the north their whole artillery, including their anti-aircraft and anti-tank guns, they will set a more stubborn task to the besieging Allies, and especially to their air forces,” he says. Mr Garvin estimates that the Axis forces in Tunisia were possibly 250,000. Commenting on an estimate that the Allies will have finished the campaign by June 1, he says: “That gives fifty gripping days from now to smash the worst bottleneck of the whole war. It is about the latest date for the European purposes of the Casablanca programme, and for a trenchant effect on the world battle it is late to the point of risk.” He thinks that Hitler’s last bid for world mastery by destruction of Russia will be the worst of all his attempts. “His concentrations fop a blow at the heart are enormous,” Mr Garvin says.