World Battlefronts: BATTLE OF THE DESERT: The Seesaws Saws Again

From el-Aghéila on the Gulf ofSidra, 360 miles by road from the Egyptian border, granite-jawed General Erwin Rommel turned on the harrying British desert fighters and lashed fiercely with an armored paw. The strength of his sudden assault, which backed British advance elements 145 miles up the Mediterranean coast, set Britain’s desert staff officers harder than ever at a tough job: outthinking as smart and resourceful a general as ever put foot in a field boot.

One clue to Rommel’s action could be found in the British statement several weeks ago that three out of five ships from Axis convoys trying to reach Libya were being sunk. The other two ships, bringing supplies, weapons and men, had given Erwin Rommel strength enough to strike back at the British.

Heavy Axis bombings had for seven weeks been used in an attempt to make the sea lanes safe for reinforcements for Rommel. Last week the British spotted and went out with bombers and torpedo planes to meet a big Axis convoy led by a battleship, four cruisers, 15 destroyers. Theyclaimed the probable sinking of a 20,000-ton liner, damage to one of three supply ships.

Beset with the problem of reinforcing Singapore and The Netherlands East Indies, bound to back up Turkey in the Middle East, bound to meet the German wherever he showed up, the British had to make careful calculations in disposing their forces.

At el-Aghéila&151;the high-water mark of the previous British advanceacross the desert&151;Erwin Rommel was in a perfect tactical spot. He held a shore position flanked on one side by the sea, on the other by nearly impassable salt marshes. When he sallied out last week his first thrust was tentative&151;only ten miles. Then he turned on more power. North along the seacoast rumbled his well-trained columns&151;tanks, ugly but efficient troop carriers, skittering little “People’s Cars” used as staff cars.

The outcome of this new attack by General Rommel over a stretch of ground that for the most part was infertile, inhospitable, useless, might well give the key to the fortunes of the African war in “the next year, perhaps for longer. For the fight in the desert was no cavalry skirmish. It was part of a great campaign for control of the Mediterranean, the great prize athwart the traffic of the United Nations to the Near East, to Russia and even on to Singapore.