The Stress of the Whip

The end began in Tunisia last week. All along the line Allied arms pressed forward.

Action started at the southeast end of the line and moved along its length, like the stress of a whiplash. The veteran Eighth moved first, against a focus of mean terrain at Takrouna (see col. 2), then settled down to a hill-by-hill struggle. Then the First Army moved forward gradually onto hills on the edge of the plain of Tunis and then onto the plain itself (see p. 26). Later still, units of the U.S. II Corps suddenly showed up at the northern flank, after a remarkable forced march, and began an inching progress like the Eighth's (see p. 28).

Of all these attacks, the one in the center seemed last week to have the greatest likelihood of early success. The Germans in their mountain positions elsewhere were set for siege. They had dug in for months. But in the center, the First was edging on to the plain of Tunis. If the hills beside it could be cleared--and some of them were cleared last week--then the Allies could eventually sweep to Tunis, divide or further compress the defenders, and drive the remnants into the sea.

The chances of accomplishing this were enhanced by the work of the Allies' Tactical Air Force, which flew last week as it had never flown before. On one sector a correspondent counted a plane a minute going over to attack Axis positions. On the U.S. II Corps front, whenever an officer asked to have a hill dusted, Boston attack planes arrived within an hour to do the job. The Luftwaffe's fighter strength increased during the week, and the Germans made shrewd use of it on each momentarily crucial sector. But massed planes and massed guns were beginning to crack the defenders.

A BBC broadcast last week said: "German soldiers are hastily building emergency wharfs, with boards and beams, along the beaches." This was taken to mean that evacuation was at hand. But correspondents on the spot thought not. They could see the beginning of the end, but the end of the end was hidden on the opposite slopes of some very steep and very stubborn hills.

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