MUSSOLINI'S MISTAKE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 June 1943, Page 4

MUSSOLINI'S MISTAKE

BRITISH IN MEDITERRANEAN “ENGLISHMEN MAD” SIZE OF OPPOSING FORCES IN 1940. Some interesting details of the strength of the opposing forces in the Mediterranean are given in a leaflet entitled “Miracle in the Mediterranean,” issued by the Australian Association of British Manufacturers. When Mussolini discovered that pathetically small British forces were taking the offensive in “his sea” and on the shores around it, he doubtless shrugged his shoulders and said “All Englishmen are mad!” On June 9, 1940, German Rome Radio said: “Gibraltar and Suez—these are clearly formulated problems which Italy is to clear up once and for all.” In the same month another Italian statement announced that “in a few hours we can wipe out all British defences in Malta and make the island an uninhabitable waste.” Ansaldo Radio, Rome, on October 25, 1940, said: “The British defence in Egypt will now be smashed, and the British Fleet driven out of the Mediterranean.” Small wonder Mussolini felt confident! Figures recently released by the British Government reveal the relative strength of the British and Italian forces in and around the Mediterranean at the time w’hen the collapse of France had knocked the bottom out of British strategy in that area:— Italian Mediterranean Fleet. —6 battleships, 7 Sin. gun cruisers, 14 Gin. gun cruisers, 131 destroyers and torpedoboats, 104 submarines.

British Mediterranean Fleet. —“Little more than a token force; a few cruisers and destroyers and nothing else.” (Admiral Cunningham). Italian Land Forces. —260,000 men in Libya; 300.000 men in Italian North east Africa, including Abyssinia. British Land Forces. —90,000 men all told in Egypt, Palestine and East Africa.

Italian Air Force. —2,000 front line aircraft. British Air Force. —168 machines in Egypt and 4 machines at Malta.

The route which British reinforcements had to take to reach Egypt, round the Cape, was 11,000 miles long. When France collapsed. Britain made a last-minute attempt to send air reinforcements through the Mediterranean. Only three Blenheim bombers and six Hurricanes got through. However, the mad British went “out in the midday sun” to some effect. Within the next few months (in spite of what was happening at Home) 1.100 Italian planes were destroyed by the British Mediterranean Air Force, notwithstanding its “hopeless” inferiority in numbers. Italy’s effective fleet was approximately halved by naval and fleet air-arm victories, which thrilled us at the time. They would have thrilled us even more if we had known the figures as to the relative strength of the combatants in those engagements. In the Sudan the position was particularly bad. The Italians had 100,000 men of their East-African forces ranged along the Sudan frontier alone. We had three British battalions (2,500 men) and the native Sudan Defence Force of 4,500 men; we had no tanks, two six-inch coastal guns at Port Sudan, and four obsolete howitzers at the Governor-General’s Palace at' Khartoum, normally 'used for firing salutes. Our air strength consisted of seven machines of obsolete types to help the ground forces, and two bomber squadrons at Port Sudan to help the Navy keep the Rod Sea open. Bluff saved the situation there. Constant offensives by the tiny forces under MajorGeneral Platt deceived the Italians into thinking strong forces were opposed to them. Everybody knows what has happened since then.