The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-06-19
British May Be Forced
 To Lose Navy Control
Continued from Page l)

supply diniculties.
 But the immediate future of the war was up to Rommel, and the 1m- mediate future of the Mediterranean basin.
 He had always in the past turned up with more tanks and guns than anybody suspected and 1t was be- lieved possible that he might de- eide to continue his offensive in an attempt to force the British to draw reserves from Syria and Pal estine.
 This would weaken the defenses of the Near Eastern oil areas and give the Germans the chance to drive from Crete and the Dodecan- ese Islands into Middle Eastern Asia.
 Many experts here have believed that Germany might make It's main effort this summer in the Mediter- ranean, and time Caucasus ot7en- sive on the Russian front with . drive into the oil regions.
 Unofficial observers here agreed that reinforcing Libya seemed No. on the allied priority list.
 British experts drew these con- Clusions from the sudden reveral which snatched complete success from the Allies by-a narrow mar gin:
 Results of the offensive by forces under Nazi General Erwin Rommel still are incomplete, but British nnil- itary experts drew these conclusions today from the sudden reversal that snatched success from the Allies by narrow margin: Hopes Of RoHialmel
 1. RoInmel apparently hopes to secure bases from which land-based airplanes might squeeze the British fleet into the eastern end of the Mediterranean and keep 1t there by following the example of American air forces based on Midway Island against the Japanese. This would gravely endanger Malta if success7 full.
 2-The British eighth army under It. Gen. Neil M. Ritchie was within an ace of victory that might have ended the whole North African war, but Rommel daringly took ad- vantage of weaknesses in Allied desert equipment and used Stuka dive-bombers skillfully to regain control of the main battlefields and to salvage Q mass of damaged equipment.
 3-The British are greatly iIn- proved but still have not fully mas tered the technique of desert me. chanized warfare due partly to failure to build up strong dive. bomber SquadronS.
 Air power played its usual irn- portant role in the success of Rom. mel's operations on the Tobruk front and of special significance was the weakness of the British in use of dive bombers.
 In general, the RAF was able to maintain air superiority throughout the most intensive fighting, al- though the Berlin radio contended that the Luftwaffe was able to eS- tablish local superiority. But 1t was obvious that the German dive. bombers were highly effective and that the British lacked planes to compete with the Stukas, especially at Sir Hacheim when the first big break through came.
 Air experts here said that Britt ain must learn the value of dive bombers in desert warfare and that, in view of failure to develop such craft, they must depend heavily on use of American dive boEnberS flown by RAF pilots or perhaps by Amer ican flyers. Until then, 1t was eni- phasized, Britain can only pay high price for lack of dive-bombeE assault planes.
 Other Lessons Learned
 Other lessons which British ex- perts said were learned in the To- bruk area included:
 Tanks-The AXnerican-built Gen. eral Grant tanks proved to be ex- cellent weapons in many respects but It's .75 gun has too low muszle velocity.
 4I1SIS WOIV 11Ob S4AOuoIl $SklC@0 0A Grant tanks and the average Allied tank in the desert was unable to match the fire power of the Ger man Mark { tanks. The Axis tanks as well as the Allied tanks have been improved in recent months, and at present we are no more than keeping pace with the enemy in improved mechanical design, ac- cording to British experts.
 It is necessary that we outstrip the enemy in design and outproduce him, by very substantial margin in view of the fact that our supply routes are much longer and more difficult than those of the Axis.
 Artillery-The British 2S poundeF Is still regarded as an exceptiOn- ally fine product and the six pounder anti-tank gun is 8 great improvement but the Allies had nothing in the desert to match the German ee, which the British re- gard as one of the greatest weapons developed in this war. By xnassine these guns near the KnightsbFidgt and ambughing Q British column Rommel inflicted heavy easssailael at critical time in the battle.
 Technique- The British have mads ' areat heafWaV n MsastcgaHg tlz,