Evening star., 1943-03-12
Enemy Gains Called
Only Local Save at Sea
Major Eliot Says Public Must
View War as Whole When
News Temporarily Is Bod
By Maj. George Fielding Eliot.

L..
The overall picture of the war II.
today's headlines may not seem too
cheerful to American readers. That is
largely because We are in one of those
periods of enemy countereffort which
we must expect from time to time in the
course of the war. though not necessarily
simultaneously on every front as is now
the case.
In the broad strategic sense, the United
Nations are now on the offensive; but
neither of our chief enemies Is 50 re-
duced as to have lost his power to op-
pose us with strong counteroperations.
which If defensive in strategical pur-
pose. may yet bear the character Of
local and tactical offensives. That is
what has been happening in recent
days, and that is why, for the moment.
the headlines are not bright with good
news, There will be many such occa-
sions as the war proceeds, and we must
learn to take them in our stride.
In Russia, for example. the Russian
offensive in the south reached its high
tide. and has ebbed little The Ger
mans, who seemed likely not long ago
to have to withdraw behind the Dnieper
and to lose their whole Donetz army,
have STAYED off at least that measure OF
disaster by a well-planned counter at
tack So far that Is the extent of their
success. Russian loss of Kharkov, II
it comes. would be a heavier blow, but
even then, measured against German
hopes in the summer of last year, the
situation is not unpromising from the
United Nations point Of view. There
will be no Caucasian oil for Germany,
there are at least 20 (probably nearer
40) German divisions which will not
fight again, and the satellite armies Of
Rumania and Hungary have been pretty
we'll eliminated from the war. In North
Russia meanwhile. the Russians still
hold the initiative. and pressure on
wanna. Smolensk and Staraya Russia
continues. Finland wavers. And the
Russians probably still have reserves
in hand.
In Tunisia, publication of the fact
action" presumably prisoners, UNDER
lines the sharpness OF the tactical re-
verse that We suffered when Rommel
broke through the Kasserine Pass. But
he did not smash our base at TebeSsa,
and we are slowly recovering, though
the pressure we are able to bring to bear
on his flank, as he engages the British
lie uyh mi
been had we not been so roughly ham
died Again the enemy has achieved
a local success, of no less proportion in
ratio to the scale of the Tunisian opera
tions than that in South Russia in ratio
to the far greater scale Of the fighting
there. But as the 9Th Army prepares
grimly to launch its major blow, in
North Tunisia the valiant holding at
tacks of Won Arnim are beaten back
and reinforced American and French
troops in the center creep back toward
Gafsa. In Tunisia as in Russia new
Allied offensives are in the making.
In the south and southwest Pacific,
there has been long -drawn-out sparring
for position. The enemy has, in general,
had the worst of such encounters as
have taken place in the course of this
process. We have succeeded so far in
preventing him from getting set for any,
thing like a large scale offensive to-
ward New Guinea, and we have gained
full control OF the waters and islands
of the southeastern Solomons. We have
at least qualitative air superiority. There
seems reason to hope that here too the
signs favor q new offensive by United
Nations forces within the appreciable
future.
Then there is the possibility Of the
opening OF new fronts. There is Western
and Northern Europe: there is China.
But such possibilities, like the offensives
which may soon be launched on the
fronts already established, are colored
by the situation on the one front where
the enemy and not the United Nations,
still retains the initiative-the one front
where he has chance, even if remote.
of substantial victory.
That is the sea front, the unrelenting
U-boat warfare against those far flung
sea lanes upon which all our of1ensives,
all aid to Russia and China, all American
and British military enterprises OF low
and high degree depend for their very
life's blood. On this front the enemy is
still attacking and on this front, though
we have had lull due to bad weather
and enemy time out" for reorganization,
1t is the enemy and not the United
Nations who will soon be increasing
offensive operations up 10 the highest
pitch of effort of which he Is capable.
We SHALL of course, take counter meas
ures; but we must all realize that this
is the crucial battle which must be
fought and won before we can have full
freedom of action to bring decisive pres
sure to bear on any land or air front
beyond the seas.
When we feel inclined to complain of
delays and disappointments in Africa,
or Russia, or the Pacific, we must bear
in mind that to considerable degree
these delays and disappointments are
due to the fact that we have not yet won
the battle Of the sea lanes, the grim
unending battle that goes on day and
night on the surface of the storm tossed
waters Of all the seven seas, and above
those waters and below them. In this
battle, as in all that he now does, the
enemy is fighting hard to gain time: he
is fighting a war of attrition in which
his major hope is to divide his foes and
to win from them, either together or
singly, negotiated peace. He counts on
| war WEAKNESS and the friction that is