Seesaw in Africa

The London Times divulged to its readers last week "a disagreeable surprise." Bengasi had fallen into Axis hands again. Later in the week it had a pleasant surprise: Addis Ababa had fallen into British hands without a struggle.

For a fortnight a large-scale Axis mechanized raid had been under way in Libya. It had been signalized by the resignation of Marshal Rodolfo Graziani, nearly the last of Italy's famed and tried old hands. His place was taken by General Italo Gariboldi, 62, one of Italy's old whisker-bearing generals. But the real Axis commander in Libya was now no Italian. It was Lieut. General Erwin Rommel, a Panzer expert whose appointment to Libya must have maddened the Italians: he distinguished himself against them in World War I. General Rommel apparently used one mechanized division (mostly German) in his giant raid, and by outflanking tactics took first el-Agheila, the farthest point of British advance, then the desert outposts of Marsa el-Brega and Agedabia.

The British nowhere put up real resistance. They claimed they evacuated Bengasi without losing a man. The British communique stated that British advance forces had withdrawn "to choose our own battleground." The British were evidently perfectly willing to cede territory, since in desert warfare, as in sea warfare, the destruction of enemy fighting units is the only thing that counts.

How far the German advance would go was anybody's guess. The complete lack of resistance suggested that General Sir Archibald Wavell had stripped the area of all but a skeleton force, and sent most of the others to Greece where he expected more decisive action. He had taken a gamble of the kind good generals have to take.

About 20,000 Germans and Italians were actively participating in the drive in Libya, and they were thought to have more than twice as many in reserve. That the British were not unduly depressed by the fall of Bengasi was due to the fact that growing Sahara heat will impede the Axis advance and that soon British troops in East Africa may be free to turn to the defense of Egypt.

In East Africa, the British advances looked more like dress parade than war. Some of the Eritrean force swept down into Ethiopia and took Aduwa, scene of the famed Italian debacle in 1896. The South African detachment which had taken Italian Somaliland, had swept up across the Ethiopian savannas and had cracked Harar, now drove up the Addis Ababa-Djibouti railroad at the rate of 25 miles a day. There was a brief, sharp action at the Awash River. Then the British pressed on and took Addis Ababa without meeting any Italian resistance at all.

Thus, at the age of five, died Benito Mussolini's infant colony. There was still probably a battle to be fought. Italian troops from Addis Ababa fled north to meet the Italian troops fleeing down from Eritrea. Presumably the two forces planned to join for one last stand.

At Addis Ababa, the Italian commander, the Duke of Aosta, left behind a note to the British commanders, General Wavell and Lieut. General Alan Gordon Cunningham, a remarkable but pathetic document of defeat:

"His Royal Highness, the Duke of Aosta, wishes to express his appreciation of the initiative taken by General Wavell and General Cunningham regarding the protection of the women and children of Addis Ababa, thereby demonstrating that strong bonds of humanity and race still exist between our nations."

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