ALLIED ASSAULTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 December 1943, Page 3

ALLIED ASSAULTS

ON WEST & SOUTH EUROPE PATTERN OF COMMAND MADE CLEAR. BUT SOME APPOINTMENTS STILL PENDING. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.20 a.m.) RUGBY, December 27. Further appointments to the High Command in consequence of the transference from the Mediterranean to Britain of Generals Eisenhower and Montgomery arc expected very shortly. The pattern of the command for next year’s great assaults from west and. south has been made clear, but important details remain to be filled in. The supreme commander for the still dormant Western theatre is fittingly the man who made his name in the supreme command in the southern theatre which hitherto has been the only fully active theatre. Under him, General Montgomery commands the British forces, but the Amrican commandr is not yet known. An air chief has also to be appointed. Air Marshal Tedder has been mentioned in this connection. Moreover, General Montgomery displaces General Sir B. Paget, one of the leading British commanders, for whom an important part is no doubt reserved in the coming campaign. In the Mediterranean, the great assault from the south is conceived as a single campaign, the supreme command of which has been given to General Sir H. Maitland Wilson. Under him, General Sir H. Alexander commands in the Italian theatre. If, as is generally assumed, there are also to be operations in the Balkans, it will be necessary to fill General Wilson’s place as commander in the Middle Eastern theatre. This may, indeed, be the most important command. The, various air commands probably also remain to be filled, but the pattern of air strategy and tactics in relation both to the north-western ayd southern fronts is not yet quite clear. It is assumed that the arrangements which Air Marshal Tedder successfully perfected for the North African and Italian campaigns will to some extent be reproduced in other theatres.