Evening star., 1942-10-25
Showdown in Eqypt?

1t looks very much as though a
great, and possibly decisive, battle
has begun on the long -stalemated
Egyptian front. And this time it is
the British who have jumped the gun.
The current attack by imperial
ground troops had been heralded by
several days of intensive activity by
British and American airmen, who
attained superiority in the skies over
the battlefront and bombed Axis
land communication far to the rear.
This was supplemented by Allied air
raids on Axis conveys in the Mediter-
ranean and on Axis bases as distant
as Crete and Southern Italy. That
would be the normal procedure in ad-
vance of ground offensive. Marshal
Rommel undoubtedly has been re-
celvlng heavy reinforcements of men
and materials through conveys COW
cred by the heavy Axis bombings of
Malta during the past fortnight.
Perhaps the British high command
has decided to strike before those
fresh troops and supplies have been
fully disembarked and have reached
the fighting front. This British
offensive may we'll have been fore
shadowed in Premier Smuts address
in London on Trafalgar Day. Smuts
Is known to be Jealous advocate of
action in Africa. Indeed, his arrival
in Britain for conferences with Prime
Minister Churchill gave rise to much
speculation along those lines.
Assuming that full-scale battle
has been joined, it is bound to be fast
and furious. Rommel's lightning
= thrust last summer initiated a new
phase in the North African situation.
Hitherto, warfare in that area had
been wide-ranging maneuvers over
limitless desert, much like fleet &C
tions at sea. When Rommel1 was
halted in the bottleneck between the
Mediterranean and the Qattara De-
preston, both sides dug in on line
not exceeding thirty miles in length,
thus inaugurating positional war
fare. Last month Rommel tested the
strength of the British position. but
ran into such hornets nest of mine
fields, intrenchments and concentric
artillery fire that he retired, badly
stung. The British now are reversing
the process, and probably will come
,ocfo oc1,o11r join = of
Press reports from Cairo speak of
several Axis fortified lines, consti-
tuting an elaborate defense in depth
on the pattern already evolved in
Russia
Rommel's position is strong one.
He can be forced back nearly 100
miles before he is elected from the
long funnel between the sea and the
Qattara Depression, during which his
flanks cannot be turned. That means
the necessity of head-on British at
tacks, with the inevitable cost in
blood and equipment which they en-
tail. The battle may thus be long
and gruelling, especially if Rommel
has the reserves to hold the bottle
neck against repeated British as
saults.
The stakes in the current battle far
transcend the local area in which it
is fought. A decisive defeat of Rom
mel by the British would have ire
rlendcus repercuesions upon the
tense situation in France and French
North Africa, and upon the Near East
as we'll. All the neutral and semi
neutral peoples, from Spain and
Portugal to Turkey and Saudi Arabia,
must have their eyes fixed intently
upon the conflict that is now start
ing. The coming winter may see
Africa become a major theater in
this planetary war.
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