Evening star., 1942-05-28
RommeI's Libyun Move

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Erwin Rommel, is on the move again.
His mobile columns of tanks and
motorized infantry are thrusting
vigorously forward across the bleak
no-man's lahd of Eastern Libya and
have made contact with British
advanced forces, while Axis airplanes
are busily accommodating and bomb
ing British positions and communi-
cations.
This new Axis offensive comes as
somewhat of a surprise, because
large-scale fighting in North Africa
has usually died down with the
approach of summer and its blister
ing heat in the shadelesS, desert.
However, British military commen-
tators have stated recently that such
operations, though gravely handi-
capped by the climate, are not i'm
possible. And the British high COM
mand in Cairo has intimated that
some sort of trouble is brewing.
If this Axis thrust turns out TO be
something more than a reconnais-
sance or a bluff, it should be con-
sidered against the background OF
the entire Mediterranean situation
as part of a larger whole. Marshal
Rommel can hardly mediate a
single e-handed drive on Egypt, like
that attempted by his ill-starred
predecessor, the Italian General
Graziani, in the late summer of 1910,
or by himself the following year. In
those days, Britain's position in
Egypt and the Near East generally
was pitifully weak. The sudden de-
fection Of France, which had been
charged with the major share Of
safeguarding the Mediterranean, left
Britain with little more than token
forces there. Admiral Sir Andrew
Cunningham, in his recent review of
the war in that theater, admits that
only gross Italian incompetence
saved Britain's hold on the Near East
in 1910, and there was another bad
moment when Marshal Rommel and
his crack German Afrika Korps en-
tered the picture next year. How
ever, from then on, British power in
the Near East increased rapidly,
while the Axis was hard put to it to
maintain it's strength in North
Africa, owing to the efficacy of the
British naval and air blockade.
The past two months have wit
messed an improvement in the Axis
African situation, chiefly because
the unremitting aerial lombard
ment of Malta has kept the British
from using that vital air and sub
marine base effectively against Axis
reinforcements from Italy to Libya.
Today, Rommel may be as strong
as, or even stronger than, he ever
was. Yet this fact is offset by the
corresponding increase in British
strength in this same theater OF war;
Thus Rommel is presumably unable
to move independently against Egypt
and the Suez Canal.
The more likely explanation of an
Axis campaign in North Africa at
this moment is that it is the opening
gun of a general Axis offensive
throughout the Mediterranean, ex-
tending potentially all the way from
Gibraltar to the Dardanelles, Cyprus
and Syria. This includes not only
military, naval and air operations
but also political activities such as
current diplomatic maneuvers be-
tween France and Italy, with Ger
many undoubtedly pulling the strings
in the background. It is too soon
to speculate in detail on just how
this complex situation will work out.
But the magnitude of Rommel's
operations in Libya should furnish a
fair test of whether the Mediter-
ranean is to become major theater
of warfare this summer, or whether
all this is an Axis smoke-screen for
decisive move elsewhere. Libya is
thus a touchstone for what, is soon
to come.