Evening star., 1941-05-31

Col. Frederick Palmer the control of
the Aegean won, the next task for
the Nazi bombers is to protect a
lane of ship transport. past the
British island of Cyprus to the
coast of Syria. If they can We
shall hear of German tanks cross
ing Syria to blast a way to the
AgiItiC side Of the canal.
Meanwhile, the Italians are hav-
ing their troubles in maintaining a
transport bridge across the Sicilan
Straits for the drive on the
African side. They have lost an
other transport. Every tank that
is sunk in transport is one less for
Gen. Sir Archibald P. Wavell's
army to face.
Even the calm Gen. Wavell could
hardly suppress his emotion and
regard it as blessing direct from
heaven if there we're 500 tanks on
our ships going to the Red Sea.
We are sending all We can.
Quality Counts in Tanks.
If the Axis partners can keep
the two sea bridges intact they are
sure of an immense superiority in
numbers. Quality, profiting by the
latest improvements, counts for
more than numbers when land
orb o Y1JzotinY1 Tnvt
plane. If in much smaller measure,
is subject to the most rapid evolu-
ton.
Tank classification should not be
tied too closely to light, medium and
heavy. The light tank can be said
roughly to be what the naval de-
stroyer is to the cruiser, and the
medium to the heavy what the
cruiser is to the battleship The
pertinent question is how well
armed and armored they are. We
know what happened to the rels-
lively fragile French tanks In the
battle of France.
Germany is reported to expect
much in the Suez campaign from
new model heavy 8o-ton tanks.
which are in a Bismarck class Of
battleship tanks. The secret Of
their construction has been more
successfully kept than that Of our
new medium M-3 tank.
Hopefully, details of any new arm
will be concealed at least until mass
production begins. That gives your
side the jump of all the time it will
take the enemy to get into mass pro-
duction of duplicate. Perfection in
concealment extends until the enemy
captures sample in battle.
Model InnOcently Revealed.
When the first pilot model of our
M-3 medium tank was turned out by
one of our new plants on the site of
what was cornf1eld last September
an innocent photograph of the M-3
got by for innocent publication. No
enemy ordnance expert had to build
a facsimile based on bits of knowl-
edge as a paleontologist works out
| the form and structure of a pre-
historical animal from a few fossil
bones. Size, guns. caliber of guns,
thickness of armor and engines. all
were revealed about as definitely as
those of this years model of an
automobile in a showroom.
1t is known Germany lately has
reorganized her Panzer division with
a smaller complement of infantry
for the Suez campaign. The British
must have tanks in large production
for home defense, and many have
been sent to Egypt in recent months.
Home defense included thorough
study of anti-tank defense.
So far tank action in Africa on
a terrain singularly favorable for
tanks has been hit-and-run or en-
circle and capture in sensational
fashion, but the British have evi-
IDENTIFY held out against some strong
tank attacks in Tobruk. Tank
against tank, anti-tank gun against
tank, we shall learn much more
about the new German battleship
tank and the latest in tank warfare
before any Axis tank reaches the
bank of the Suez.
Released by North American Newspaper
Alliance, Incl