Evening star., 1941-02-25

Cairo on the day that Bardia was
captured (January s.. I talked with
American and British correspond
entS who entered Bardia with the
AnZacs, and also with senior Off
cials in the British Middle Eastern
command and the Royal Air Force.
Their testimony was unanimous At
last the British had the power in
Egypt and the rest of Africa. At last
they were going to strike hard and
keep striking. Bardia was only the
beginning, they said. That's exactly
what it has proved to be.
Cairo was overfloWing with British
officers and men. So were other
places, like Khartoum, and places
even much farther afield All were
full of determination and quiet
confidence. In their minds there
exists no question about the Italians
being driven out of Africa and
driven out completely. They are
confident because they are strong
and growing stronger every day.
They are in a winning mood because
the three arms of British military
power-army, navy and air force
have never operated with such
smoothly oiled coordination and
precision before. Everything that
the Chamberlain -paraiyzed British
forces failed so disastrously to do in
regard to Norway has been done in
both Libya and the Greek-Albanian
war theater, and done as if it had
been perfected by months of re-
hearsal and preparation.
In Cairo you learn that the Libyan
campaign was indeed worked out
with supreme care and skill, but you
also learn that the British have
mastered the art of swift, mechan-
lied warfare A great part of their
dazzling dash from Sidi Barrani
through Bardia, Tobruk. Derna and
away past Bengasi, has been due to
the audacity, improvisation and fiex-
ibility of commanding officers and
men alike. No German motorized
units have yet slasked through more
than 1870 miles of enemy territory
in single day. No German tanks,
on any war front, have moved with
greater speed and efficiency.
1t is no secret in Egypt that Gen.
Wavell'S commanders in the field
have enjoyed the same freedom of
action and decision which once made
men like "Light-Horse Harry" Lee
and Gen. Sheridan and Gen. Forrest
so devastatingly effective upon
American battlefields. Gen. O'Con-
nor, in particular, has been free to
improvise according to the DISPOSE
ton of italian troops wherever he
has run them down and established
contact with them. He has used
tanks and motorized units with the
same elasticity with which cavalry
were used in our Civil War days,
and he has manipulated them bril-
liantly. All of this means that the
British have appropriated the war
of movement as a striking weapon,
and that Hitler's army now enjoys
no monopoly in this respect.
Africa Is Spring Board.
AS a result of these surprising
events and impressive developments,
it would be a grave error to regard
the African war as mere sideshow.
even though you should be tempted
to be rash enough to dismiss the
considered judgment of so materful
a strategiSt as the Kaiser's Gen.
Ludendorff. In hard fact the British,
beginning significantly with VIM
ston Churchill at the top, have rec
ogniZed that the European war
can and may be won in Africa,
Africa is the springboard and the
drive to clean up the rest of Libya
and Italian East Africa will not be
slackened. nor is it likely to fail.
In this respect, the open lines of
communication, across the free
Belgium" of the Belgian Congo and
the free French" of French Equa-
torial Africa. are an additional
factor of great strength. The heart
of Africa is solid for Britain and her
Allies. If or when Tripoli falls. the
British will have a common frontier
with French Tunisia, and Gen. Max
ime Weygarld's Algerian and Moroc-
can armies may not regret to have
this the case.
When a British fleet can lombard
Genoa in the tightest corner of
the italian coast, it appears highly
improbable that Fascist warships
will be able to prevent joint land,
air and sea assault on Tripoli. Sew
eral hundred Nazi bombers might
conceivably make such an operation
difficult, but they would have to
face serious losses from fighter
squadrons which are among the
finest in the R. A. F. and the British
| fleet air arm. Finally, Hitler would