Winston S. Churchill, The Hinge of Fate
Winston S. Churchill, The Hinge of Fate
The News of the Week in Review
Six Focal Points of the War in the West (map) – 14
Twenty News Questions – 15
In Tunisia the Allies and Axis Are at Grips (map) – 16
Stage Set in Tunisia for Our Big Offensive (Middleton) – 17
‘On Mastery of the Atlantic Depend All Plans of War’ (map) – 18
Grim Struggle Goes On for Mastery of Seas (Daniell) – 19
Answers to Twenty News Questions – 20
* Today Lieut. Gen. Frank M. Andrews, United States Army Commander in the European theatre of operations, announced formally that he was listed as “missing” and said that two men had been seen to have bailed out of the bomber in which Post had been a passenger. Some witnesses said nine jumped from the bomber.
Post did not make it out of the plane. This should be confirmed in a few months. Post and Raymond Daniell, author of this article, had both been London correspondents since September 1939, so the writing this piece must have been a sorrowful task. Post’s entry in our index by author is below. From wikipedia:
“In February 1943 Post stunned two friends with the admission that he thought he was going to die. He had been selected to accompany bomber missions with the 8th U.S. Air Force and would soon be departing for Germany. Post's friends, actress Leonora Corbett and war correspondent Helen Millbank of the Chicago Daily News, tried to reassure him, but Post insisted he wasn't coming back.”
It’s interesting that Monty is holding at the Mareth Line to wait to get his logistical house in order. Then he will bring up X Corps and be ready to resume offensive operations. While it is popular to bash Monty as being too cautious and the proponent of the “set piece” battle, what he is doing here is emminently logical and reasonable. There was a “logistic limit” to every successful World War II offensive; the offensive would always peter out when the limits of the supply lines were reached. Any attempt to push an offensive past those limits usually met with a bloody nose as the defenders would regroup on their bases and deliver a strong counter stroke. Soviet generals Vatutin and Golikov are being taught this lesson by German Field Marshal von Manstein right now. Montgomery will later forget this lesson in Operation Market-Garden.