Evening star., 1943-03-30
RommeI Making Best
Of Bad Borgoin
Major Eliot Says Question
Now Is Whether Fox
Con Get Awoy to the North
By Maj. George Fielding Elio

By Maj. George Fielding Eliot.
The ultimate result of the fighting
in Southern Tunisia as previously point
ed out in my recent article, has hardly
been in doubt from the moment it was
apparent that Gen. Montgomery had not
only been able to throw his full weight
against the Mareth defenses but had
taken Ell HANNA. That result must be
the abandonment of Southern Tunisia by
the Germans The really important
point which remains to be decided is
whether Rommel is going to be able to
get away with any considerable part
of his forces-in other words what will
be the size of the bag which Gems Mont
gomery and Patton will get between
them?
The Mareth Line has been overrun in
just about the same length of time that
it took Gen. Montgomery to overrun
the Ell Alamein defenses. At first there
seemed a chance that he was going to
break right through at his first thrust,
but Rommel's unexpected reserve strength
enabled him to put on counterattack
which checked that drive. Gen. Mont
gomery then had to batter his way
through by the time -honored methods
of the infantry artillery team. This he
has accomplished.
We shall now see whether it will be
possible for Gen. Montgomery to exploit,
with his armored troops, the accom-
plishments of his infantry and artillery
in the same manner that he did at Ell
Alamein. To quote the British official
account, there were two decisive stages
in the Ell Alamein battle. The first was
the infantry break-t through. The second
was the great tank battle at Ell AqQaqir.
The first made the second possible, and
the second sealed the success of the first.
The first was completed in just over
nine days, the second in as many hours
When it was over, Ell Aqqaqir was a
cemetery of Axis armor and the battle
of Egypt was in fact won. The rest was
pursuit"
Whether swift and complete decision
can now be obtained by British armor
is probably very largely dependent on
whether the Germans have prepared an
other deep defensive zone in the gap be-
tween Gabes and the eastern end of the
salt marshes. Otherwise Gen. Montgom-
cry is in an excellent position to pour his
overwhelming armored strength through
the Mareth Line and down into the
Gabes plain. His right flank is protected
by the sea, his left is covered by his
flanking column at Ell HANNA and, just
as at Ell Alamein, if Rommel has to de-
pend on armored counterattack to stop
the British, he will have to make frontal
attack with forces proportionately far
inferior to those with which he tried the
same operation at Ell Alamein and was
disastrously beaten.
But if Gen. Montgomery has broken
through the Mareth Line only to find
himself confronted by another deep de-
fensive zone, he may have another
period of hard fighting before he can
gain the open plains.
A good deal also depends now on
whether Gen. Patton is able to advance.
A push forward by Gen. Patton either
from Fondouk or Maknassy should come
very near to being decisive-decisive that
is in threatening to trap Rommel and
therefore affecting Rommels decision as
to whether he dares make anything of a
stand in the Gabes gap, however well he
may have prepared it for defense.
But all these matters are chiefly ques-
tions of time. Rommel is making the
best of bad bargain and winning all
the time he can in Southern Tunisia.
He has just about reached the end of
his ability to delay us there, and he is
indeed playing a very dangerous game
because for every hour he remains in
the south there is an additional chance
that he will be cut off from Won Arnim
and unable to effect consolidation of
German forces in the north Against
that of course, he is balancing the fact
that the longer he can hold on where he
is, the longer he has the use of the ports
of Gabes, Sfax and Sousse, which in
crease his chances of getting additional
supplies and reinforcements.
The placing of the italian Navy under
German command suggests that des-
perate attempt to reinforce the Axis
armies in Africa may be in the making.
Time is, therefore, vitality important to
us as we'll as to Rommel, for such an
attempt would have a far better chance
of achieving at least partial success
under present circumstances than it
would if it's only possible ports of desti-
nation were Tunis and Bizerte, and the
whole power of the Allied air forces were
free to concentrate on those two
positions.
tCopyright, 1913, N Y. Tribune, Inc.)
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