The Glasgow courier. [volume] (Glasgow, Mont.) 1913-current, 1943-03-18

NORTH AFRIcA.-The North African expedition will be written in his
tory as n of the greatest single military overseas expeditions OF al times
Carefully timed and planned it may change the whole course of the war.
Fighting vas negligible; it ws Bhtzkrieg personihed. Hitler will not be
defeated by the Allied conquest of North Africa, but the let will have given
the Allies two tremendous advantages which have been sorely lacking:
C Protection for Mediterranean shipping, and C), nw bases completing
the semicirce of bases around Europe.
Allied air power based on North Africa will in time raise a protective
umbrella" above the Mediterranean shipping lanes and permit safe passage
of that stretch of water. When this is a realization the effect upon Japan
the Chinese real help in driving the Japs from China. This new route will
say 5000 miles and many thousands of tons of shipping. The Middle
East can be supplied and its oil brought back to Britain.
Eventually North Africa will be finged with Allied airfelds, and planes
based upon them will rain death from the skies upon Southern Europe until
it is sofened up enough for a blow at the vulnerable part of Europe. The
bases North Africa will unquesionaby be used as jumping off points for
Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, Italy Southern France, Greece, Crete, and per-
haps the Balkans, accompanied by invasions from British points.
A great deal has been said about the importance of Dakar. Only 1880
air miles from Natal, Brazil, it has been a constant threat to the security
or North Atlantic sea lanes and relieve the submarine menace in this
area. There is evidence that German submarines have used Dakar as
of adding many ley vessels to his submarine fleet. In Allied hands Dakar
will cut thousands of miles from the route used for airborne plane deiv-
cries to the fighting fronts. 1t will serve as a great dispersal point for
Tsbed bv tbe Allies AT : Secret Red sea noint The facilities ~ Dsksr are
superior to those of any West African port. The harbor is deep, well
protected, and with a drydock, seaplane bases, vast petroleum storage
tanks and all the other installations of a frtcass naval base.
The Trans Saharan railway has been a French dream since 1879. The
section between Coomb- Bechar and Benz Abbes vas completed in 1912.
By 1916 it is scheduled for completion 20 the major river ports of Segu and
Abbes is $500 miles. The route is largely over desert lands of shifting sands
where few bridges and tunnels are required. Hitler may have dreamed of
using this road lin his plan to conquer South America from Dakar, and thence
move northward to the United States. Now the Allies MAY reverse the plan.
on a 2500-nne long front-the longest continuous land front of World
except weather in the uav O a natural defense barrier The rich Tluane :.
ticts of the Crimea and Donetz Basin have been lost to the Germans, b
sources developed in the equally rich Magnitogorsk region. 1t is true that
land OF the Ukraine, nut the Russians have demonstrated before that hungo
to resist. The loss of the Ukraine ws serious, but not fatal.
Unless the Red army can be annihllHed it is difficult to SEE how Russia
must guard stolen countries from the North Cane to the Mediterranean r
tains, and Russias back is far from that wall Russia can retire hundreds of
thin lines that distance? But Russia is determined not to retire. The Rus
taritv Hitler fa1s to understand "Tbev are licked" he SAID a YEA o @,
Roughly GERMANY has conquered and holds but 1907 of Russian soil.
never higher. The invasion of North Africa has given her relief to som
the Russians DESIRE but 4. least the definite assurance that greater things a