Fight to a Finish

New York Times Correspondent Joseph M. Levy wrote from Cairo last week: "The British armored forces and infantry units have broken the Axis line west of el-Gazala and have sent the Germans reeling backward in headlong retreat." Other reports also had General Erwin Rommel's Army "reeling backward." BBC claimed this week that Rommel was abandoning Bengasi and retreating towards Tripoli.

The German Army's retreat as far as el-Gazala was orderly enough. Beaten back rather than completely outmaneuvered, Rommel had left el-Gazala to hold el-Mechili-el-Tmimi road in defense of Derna. In one of the biggest battles of the Desert campaign, the British cut this road and started their advance. This was apparently the beginning of the end.

Units of Rommel's forces that had not retreated beyond Bengasi were caught on the Barca Plateau. This was the area the Axis had hoped to defend to block the advancing British. They apparently stumbled over it in retreat, for this week Rommel's armored units and the Italian infantry appeared to be sprawled from Cyrene toward Tripoli.

This stage of the kriegspiel was the tactical moment for the British southern units in Gialo to move northwestward to cut off the Axis retreat into Tripoli. This maneuver, if successful, would give Britain's new Lieut. General Neil Methuen

Ritchie an almost perfect setup for a cleanup. With some forces chasing the Germans beyond Bengasi, Ritchie was maneuvering this week to wipe out the Axis units on the Barca Plateau.

With British reports putting some British units far south of Bengasi, Rommel seemed to be facing disaster. His only outlet for the forces caught on the Barca Plateau is Bengasi. Under bombing and shelling from the sea, the port may become a jagged-edged bottleneck. This week the British began increasing their aerial activity against Axis Libyan ports. They hoped they were entering the last round of the Ritchie-Rommel fight-to-a-finish.

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