BATTLE OF EGYPT: Britain’s Round

As the last whiff of smoke blew off the wreck-strewn El Hemeimat battlefield, one thing appeared to be certain: the British had not only rocked Rommel’s Afrika Korps back on its heels; they had given it a drubbing. If at least two observers, Winston Churchill and Wendell Willkie, could be believed, the Axis had suffered a major defeat.

Wendell Willkie, who got to Egypt just after the battle ended, counted 100 out of 290 of Rommel’s first-line tanks knocked out. “I saw the ruins of these tanks myself,” said he. “Rommel has lost 40% of his punch.”

British officials in Cairo, who have learned to speak warily of any Allied victory in the desert, declined to confirm Willkie’s figure. Their own “confirmed” figure: 42. But in England Churchill crowed to the House of Commons: “The House . . . may be confident in our ability to maintain a successful defense of Egypt—not for days or weeks but for several months ahead.”

Before the battle of El Hemeimat, Britain’s chances of holding Rommel in the desert had seemed desperately scant. In Rommel’s last attack the Eighth Army had lost more than 80,000 men, to say nothing of huge amounts of munitions and supplies which Rommel had confiscated and put to his own use. The army had been driven 400 miles back, was disorganized and discouraged. Then:

> Between 40,000 and 50,000 men were moved into Egypt. They were on hand when Rommel struck.

> Tanks, anti-tank guns, anti-aircraft guns and armored vehicles poured into Egypt from Britain and the U.S., until the Eighth Army had superiority in all branches of armor, except in one important branch—heavy-gunned tanks—and had great superiority in the air.

> The Eighth Army was reorganized in depth, reinforced with “every gun and tank that could be rushed up from the Nile delta. To leave the desert army free of anxiety about its rear, a new army was brought into being along the Nile.

> Mobility was stressed. Everybody had “a seat in a lorry.” Desert signaling devices were improved.

> Complete cooperation between ground and air forces was assured.

> The British command was shaken up, a new team put in with General Sir Harold Alexander (TIME, Sept. 14) Commander in Chief, General Bernard Law Montgomery as commander of the Eighth Army in the field and General Richard Loudon McCreery as Chief of the General Staff.

Last week the British harried the Axis flanks, gave Rommel’s supply lines no surcease from bombing. Allied bombers raided Mediterranean shipping. Tobruk became known as the “milk run” to R.A.F. pilots who made regular, daily visits. Meanwhile U.S. service troops—mechanics, technical experts, supply specialists, laborers, trainers—slaved away steadily in Africa to build posts for U.S. combat troops on the way. As a relief to stretches of toil, they toughened themselves on the sand.

But Rommel’s forces were back at the point from which they had launched their assault more than a fortnight ago. Their batteries commanded the British minefields. They were a threat, and would continue to be until they were destroyed. But with rumors about their commander flying about, they seemed little inclined to renew the action.