Lost Gamble

As Allied and Axis troops faced each other in the muddy hills and olive groves of western North Africa last week, a U.S. military spokesman made clear for the first time the outline of the bloody, so far unsuccessful campaign to capture Tunisia. The dry, matter-of-fact voice, broadcasting from London, left out many details. But, added to the fragmentary dispatches that have passed censorship (see p. 58), it told enough. If the campaign had succeeded, it would have been a military coup. "It was a slender chance which failed. . . ."

The first part was familiar: how in the dark, early morning hours of Nov. 8 Allied troops landed along the strange coast of Algeria--at Algiers, at a point twelve miles west, at another point ten miles west of that. By 7 o'clock that night Algiers belonged to British and U.S. troops and the preliminary battle was over and won. On Nov. 9, General Kenneth A. N. Anderson's British First Army landed.

Seven Days. They arrived equipped for fast, offensive warfare. There were few heavy trucks to carry supplies. (Rommel had used 50,000 trucks in his advance on El Alamein.) There was little material for repairing and maintaining airfields. These things had been sacrificed to make room for men and the arms they could carry. The intention was to swoop into Tunis and Bizerte and seize them before the Axis could get set for a defense.

On Nov. 10 Axis forces began pouring into Tunis and Bizerte by sea and air at the rate of 1,000 men a day. On Nov. 11 Anderson's troops ploughed into Bougie. German dive-bombers peppered them, but they rolled steadily over the precipitous spurs of the Atlas Mountains toward the Tunisian border, 175 miles away. British and U.S. paratroops leapfrogged ahead into Tunisian airdromes. In seven days Anderson's English and Scottish soldiers had crossed the border and were meeting the first violent effort of Axis ground troops to stop them. Thirty German tanks and 400 infantrymen attacked and fell back, leaving eleven of their tanks behind.

The Hill of Jefna. On Nov. 19 British paratroops, armored cars and artillery lunged to a point near Medjez-el-Bab, there supported French soldiers in repulsing four successive waves of German troops and dive-bombers. In the south French patrols swept toward the coast and the Gulf of Gabes.

German resistance grew. Axis reinforcements continued to land in Tunis and Bizerte. Enemy tanks operated along the coast as far south as Sfax. But by Nov. 24 the gamble still looked good, as a British column neared Mateur, as British and French troops took Medjez-el-Bab. Sandwiched in between them British and U.S. armor rolled ahead. By the night of Nov. 26 the Allies had occupied Tebourba.

German low-flying-plane attacks redoubled. Destruction of bridges, roads and transport delayed the Allies. Axis strength by now was estimated to have reached some 20,000, including considerable armor. Then, on Nov. 30, the Allies were repulsed in a charge on the hill of Jefna.

The Wave and the Weather. In the whole area, from Mateur to Tebourba, hour after hour went by in a turmoil of bombardment, tank charges and hand-to-hand encounters amidst screeching swoops by the Stukas. (Not included in the spokesman's broadcast was the point that the Allies had insufficient fighter cover. Bases near enough to the front had not yet been equipped. At any rate, judging from newspaper dispatches at the time, there were too few Allied planes.)

Into the turmoil flowed a tidal wave of Axis power. The extended Allied columns staggered back. In a woods below an 1,800-ft.-high ridge, one battalion of a Hampshire Regiment made a gallant and futile stand. For four days and four nights it held out, raked by German artillery planted on the hill. Heavy tanks, followed by infantry, lumbered around its flanks.

With fixed bayonets the Hampshiremen charged into the enemy, dispersing the infantry. But armament finally overwhelmed them. Their wounded lay in open ground, into which German mortars mercilessly lobbed shells until the earth was a bloody shambles. In the last hours their wounded colonel ordered: "Walk toward them. Then charge. Give it to them when you are close enough."

The colonel led the attack, firing a Bren gun. But they finally had to give it up. Those who were left marched back through Tebourba. They wanted to hold there, but the colonel ordered them to withdraw to the main British lines. To remain meant certain annihilation. They obeyed and under the cover of night retired. The colonel was missing. When last seen, he was limping away into the darkness.

By Dec. 6 the Allied drive was stopped. Heavier Axis troops, operating from closer bases, had stopped it 15 miles short of its goal. The battle seesawed for a few days, broke up into sanguinary, local engagements. Torrential rains poured onto Tunisia, turning mountain roads into mires, disrupting Allied supply. There was nothing to do but fall back from Tebourba into the most available positions. The gamble was lost.

Said the military spokesman: "It is not possible to say where anybody's line runs, as there are not any lines, but our zone is more or less north & south through Medjez-el-Bab." Last week the rains still lashed at Tunisia. Fresh troops relieved the living and replaced the dead. The Allies clung. Until they got heavy equipment, until fighter cover could be provided for them, they could not push ahead. Axis troops were not powerful enough to dislodge them. The situation on the ground was at a stalemate.

The Sea and the Sky. But other battles were being fought which would in the end settle the Tunisian campaign. These were battles to control the sea and the sky and destroy the enemy's vital arteries.

Constant Allied raids on Italian depots disrupted Axis transportation at its source. Constant Allied attacks were slowly demolishing African receiving points. One day last week heavy bombers ranged for eight hours over smoking La Goulette, port of Tunis. Light and heavy bombers pounded Bizerte and railroad lines near Sfax and Gabes. Growing Allied air power was getting an edge on the Luftwaffe. General James Doolittle's Twelfth Air Force announced that U.S. flyers since the beginning of the campaign had destroyed 70 enemy planes, damaged 43. U.S. losses: 46.

Planes and British submarines took a toll of shipping on the Axis' trans-Mediterranean supply route. From London came a significant report. Along the Mediterranean Sea, once swarming with Axis planes and U-boats and long a suicide route for Allied ships, the British had recently pushed convoys to Bengasi, Tobruk and Malta (said BBC) "without incident." In the battle of supply, the Allies were doing all right.

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