Evening star., 1942-11-07
Defeat or Knockout?

SUCCESS is SLrOng meat Tor victory
hungry people" That is the cautious
admonition of one level-headed Brit
isher, uttered as foil to the mount
ing exuberance in London over the
news from Egypt. General Mont
gomery and his Imperial Eighth
Army have undoubtedly won a tri-
umph of major proportions. Marshal
Rommeps carefully fortified lines
have been smashed and his army is
in full retreat, harried mercilessly by
land and from the air. Yet, in view
of the record of fighting in North
Africa, with it's numerous and amaz-
ing shifts of fortune, it is too soon to
say that the Axis forces there are
done for.
Marshal Rommel, whom even his
British foes call the Old Fox of the
Desert, has been in tight spots be-
fore-and has got out of them sue
cessfully. 1t is barely more than six
months ago that the British thought
they had him cornered in the So
called Libyan caldron, but he
promptly turned the tables, am
bushed his pursuers, almost de-
stroyed them, and drove within an
ace of Alexandria. About year ago
the British defeated him so badly
that he escaped only by sacrificing
the bulk of his infantry in delaying
actions, streaking westward across
the desert to the shelter of his dis
tant base at Tripoli. That is what
he seems to be doing today. Latest
dispatches tell of his infantry di-
visions, mostly Italian, stiffened by
mobile artillery and anti-tank guns,
fighting desperate rear-guard actions
against the victorious ImperialS,
while Rommel's tanks and picked
motorized infantry are burning up
the desert roads in calculated flight,
leaving their comrades to their fate.
Of course, battles rarely repeat
themselves in every detail, and Rom
mel may not be as successful in this
headlong retreat as he was last year.
For one thing, the Allied air force is
much stronger and it's supremacy OF
the skies is much more complete.
Then again, the latest American
made tanks which Montgomery pos
sesses appear to be speedier than the
German, and they are racing through
gaps torn in his rear guard to head
him off and bring him to bay How
ever, for the first 100 miles, this will
not be easy, because Rommel has
that much distance in the restricted
funnel of hard surfaced desert be-
tween the sea and the Qattara De-
preston, within which wide thanking
operations are impossible. Once
that corridor is past, and a limitless
war of maneuver in the open desert
can be resumed, Rommel will be in
his element, since he has proved him
self past master at the game. He
must have supply depots at the key
points along his line of retreat-El
Daba, Mersa Matru, Solum, Tobruk,
Benghazi. That spells many hum
dreds of miles, during which the
British viii be hampered by length
ening communications. In short, the
eternal "quartermaster's battle"
which has so largely conditioned
campaigning in North Africa will
again be on.
The supreme test will probably
come within the next few days. If
the British can head off and annihi-
late Rommel's elite Afrika Korps be-
fore they can make their getaway,
the Axis game in North Africa pre-
sumably will be up, and the British
should be able to drive clear through
to Tripoli in short order. But ii the
willy marshal and his armored
nucleus escape to the remote west,
Montgomery is likely to have a long
Job ahead of him. In this type OF
warfare, territory means relatively
little. 1t is men and equipment that
count. The British have made fine
start. But they have done it before.
Only when the enemy's army has
heen DESTROYED will the knockout