Evening star., 1940-07-07
Fiqhtinq Fronts

Fighting Fronts
The war proper between Germany and
England and Italy and England has been
comparatively tame. But out Of this
restrained belligerency recently has come
a series of paradoXical and contradictory
events fittingly capped by battle between
two nations less than month ago fight
ing side by side The week presented the
strange case of Balbos death and the
strange case of the torpedoed ship.
Italo Balbo, Italian air marshal, was
a casualty of the previous week, dying
in an air crash over the Libya whose
colonial governor Mussolini had made
him. Italy mourned him as hero
killed in action against the enemy, and
now has named Marshal Rodolfo Graz
lana to his Libyan post. THE only fact
which can be established is that Marshal
Balbo did not perish in combat with
the Royal Air Force" the
Bolbo British Foreign Office an
Av.tev nounced. "A careful investi-
CATION shows that no British
aircraft were concerned in the crash
of Balbo's machine and there is thus
no truth in the statement that he fell
In battle"
Was this famous Italian victim OF
italians? The truth probably never
will be known" 1t is known, however,
that almost 1000 Germans and Italians
were victims OF German torpedo. They
were aboard the S. S. Arandora Star,
15,5O1 tons, ploughing westward across
the Atlantic toward Canada off the
coast of Ireland. At 6 am. We'd
nesday morning her unhappy pas
sengers, principally tnterned Germans
and Italians, were roughly awakened by
Q violent lurch Of their vessel.
A German submarine had sent Ger
man torpedo into the ship, not knowing
that 1t was carrying fellow nationals to
Canada "for the duration" following
similar ship that reached Canada Mon
day. The interned men, thrown into
panic, fought with each other and with
the 500 soldiers and crew members on
the ship for the right to be first in
the life boats. One German, to calm
his colleagues, dubbed them with
rifle in order to pring order in the de-
parture from the ship. There were but
three dozen lifeboats. In
Arondoro Stor them 1000 of the men
Sinkino from the Arandora Star
reached Western Scot
lands shore and safety. 1t was the
greatest passenger ship disaster of this
war. In Berlin, the German high COM
mand issued communique announcing
the ships torpedoing.
Later on that same July the British
met the French in the Mediterranean.
The strange triumph at sea registered
by the one remaining foe to Hitler will
stand forever as among the oldest OF all
naval engagements in the worlds history.
The political repercussions may be great
enough to preclude British and French
cooperation for years to come. They
had not been on opposite sides since
the end of Napoleon's wars in 1915.
The background of the extraordinary
meeting is this: On paper the French
government Of peace headed by Marshal
Petain delivered the French fleet into
the German hands through the truce Of
Compiegne. The British, stalking their
defense chiefly on their control of the
seas, exclaimed in anguish at this clause
in the compact. They resolved that what
Hitler was promised Hitler would not
have. They went after the fleet, truce
or no truce, and got it, or most Of it.
The battle between the British and
French was divided into three parts.
In English and Scottish
Anglo-Freneh ports, the battle was al
Sea Bottle most bloodless. At
Plymouth, Portsmouth
and Sheerness, armed British sailors
took possession of two battleships, two
light cruisers, the worlds largest sub
marine, the Surcouf, and 200 small
mine sweeping and anti-submarine
craft. A British seaman and French
officer were killed and French officer,
two British officers and a British en-
listed man were wounded during scuffie
aboard the Surcouf. The battle reached
Its bizarre heights at Oran, Algeria, near
the western end of the Mediterranean.
and at Alexandria. in the inland seas
eastern sector.
The French at Alexandria were trapped
and considering giving themselves in
to the British hands, as together the
British and the French warships turned
against an Italian attack from the air.
the British trap at Alexandria ensnared
a French battleship, four French
cruisers and a number OF smaller ships.
The French resisted at Oran, and the
battle ragged for an hour and 81 minutes.
The anxious story of the fight at Oran
Prime Minister Churchill, prose artist
and master at military depletion, de-
scribed in the House of Commons on
July 4:
Yesterday morning an officer asked
to interview the French admiral (Gen-
souD and after being refused, presented
document demanding that the French
feet should act in accordance with one
Of the following alternatives: q. To con-
tinue the fight against the Germans