The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-01-12
BY JOE ALEX MORRIS
UNITED Press Foreign Editor

London, Jan. 12-(UP)-A gigan-
tic battle Of the supply lines" i'm
ponds in the European and African
/ theaters of war, and the Axis is
preparing to throw more than 500
submarines into 1t in an attempt to
choke of weapons and food for allied
armies. ,.
1t will not be as dramatic a battle
as the. clash of tank against tank
and the conflict of bomber against
fighter in the clouds, but it will
have great bearing ON the length
Of the war. The best opinion is that
a good part Of 1s43 will be devoted
to the -t"battle Of the supply lines
aud that only a military miracle
will enable the Allies to knock out
the. Axis this year. 49,.
Il Broadly speaking, these are the
detectives Of the rival forces:
Allies-to close a steel ring around
the Axis fortress of Europe and at
the same time protect the vital net
work of communication lines needed
to bring the full weight Of American,
British and Russian strength a.
gainst Germany.
Axis-to delay; and If possible
prevent, the closing of the Allied
ring. and to win time to build sub
marines and :airplanes to be used In
attack on United +. Nations supply
lines, particularly the flow Of war
| materials from America. This plan.
according to reliable authorities, in
cludes offensive action by the Axis
whenever and wherever the results
appear promising. The Germans and
Italians were said to- be. ready tc
put 500 submarines into that cam
paigIl. j.
Some well informed believe the
Axis eventually will commit itself
to 10 war Of attrition, hoping the
Allies will exhaust themselves to the
point where they win settle for a
compromise peace. This plan would
include, in the minds of the German
leaders, the possibility that they
might be able to get In q lucky
punch that, would suddenly turn the
war in their favor.
Hardly anyone familiar with the
situation believes Adolf Hitler will
placidly allow himself to be placed on
the defensive. He is expected to
make sudden offensive thrusts, pos
sibly Of limited nature, and the
Allies are not ignoring the POSSIBLE
ity that he may strike through
Spain in an attempt to nullify the
Allied occupation Of North Africa.
At present Hitler has wc- tenn
porary victory of the mud" ir
Tunisia. Bad weather which has
hampered Allied air and mechanical
activity has given him respite and q
chance to strengthen his Tunisiar
forces. He now Is believed to have
more than $4,000 troops in Tunisia
and 1t IL possible that they viii be
reinforced by the part of the Afrika
Korps that escapes from Lbya.
The desperate attempt Of the
Germans to keep their toehold In
Tunisia Is phase in the "battle OF
the supply Ines" Until the Ger
mans and Italians are driven Out
OF Tunisia, the Allies cannot move
freely through the Mediterranean
Hitler apparently realizes that, for
50 far he has lost 20 ships carrying
supplies to his Tunisian army and
IN the long run, he Is taking the
risk Of losing his entire army there
Thus, 50 far as tho Axis Is con-
c. ned, T'unisia becomes delaying
action, giving the Germans time
to build submarines and planes for
the attack on Allied supply lines,
There has been increased speeu-
latlon IN the British press recently
about the activities Of the U-boats.
Many OF the methods for c0mbat-
! Ing German submarines and other
details about the campaign are cage-