Evening star., 1942-10-29
Second Phuse in Eoypt

Se~o"u nuSe III Egypt
The first phase of the great battle
for North Africa, which is being
fought on the desert approaches to
the Valley of the Nile, is substan-
TALLY completed. General Mont
gomery's Eighth Army has success
fully penetrated Marshal RommePs
advanced positions all along the 40
mile front between the Mediterran-
can and the Qattara Depression.
In places, those penetrations have
reached to a depth of four miles.
This has been accomplished in six
days of fighting which has ragged
continuously since the zero hour
shortly before midnight of last Fri
day.
The second phase is now under
way. This consists largely of in
fantry attacks under cover of creep
Ing artillery barrages supplemented
by an umbrella of planes. The in
fantry is stiffened by tanks, sparsely
spaced but nowhere punched in
regular tank attacks, since that
would draw devastating concentric
fire from Rommel's deadly 88-milli-
meter anti-tank guns. In other
words, what is now happening is a
reversion to the head-on offensives
OF the last war, wherein infantry
mastered trench and pill-box sys-
TENS by frontal attacks. That is
both slow and costly process. Yet
here it is inevitable, since there is
no way OF outflanking the entrenched
enemy, in the strategic sense. That,
OF course, does not exclude the DOS
sibility of raids against Rommels
remote rear by light British forces
sweeping widely across the open
desert south of the Qattara De-
preston or by commando units
landing along the coast. Such raids,
however, even though successful,
presumably could not be in force
enough to change the strategic pic
ture. They would at most be tao
tlcally helpful to the strategic OBJ
jective, which is the breaking of
Rommel's fighting front and the
defeat or destruction of his main
army.
This second phase may last con-
siderable time. The Allies air SUI
premacy hinders Rommel from
punching his tanks for mechanized
counter attacks Yet Rommel SEEM
ingly has enough air power to hinder
Montgomery likewise from punching
his tanks at any point. The willy
marshal has had more than two
months to prepare a defense in
depth" which means series of pre-
pared positions, one behind another.
How deeply this series extends is not
known. Theoretically, there is noth-
ing to have prevented Rommel from
fortifying the entire stretch of the
funnel that extends backward from
his present front for fully 100 miles
before the Qattara Depression ends
at its western extremity, though it is
unlikely that he has had the labor
and materials to have completed so
ambitious an undertaking.
For the immediate future, there
fore, the outlook is one of slow Brit
ish penetration of tenaciously held
positions, achieved at high cost in
lives. Apparently the British have
distinct numerical superiority and
can thus stand heavy losses. The
first test will be whether they can
pay the price over a long period. The
ultimate test will be the functioning
of rival supply lines. Rommel has
much the shorter haul, yet Allied
air superiority exposes that line to
far greater punishment than the
Axis can inflict upon the British
supply line around Africa and up
the Red Sea.
Such is the strategy and such are
the logistics of the battle for North
Africa. For both combatants the
stakes are so great that they can
be counted on to throw in every
ounce of strength. More than that
it is far too early to say.