The Enemy in Africa

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Soviet 5-Turret Heavy Tank, T-35 The attack was based on the following plan: The Armored Company (Light) to attack the hostile The Rifle ComDans (Armored) and reconnaissance reconnaissance elements to continue their advance toward M. Necessary steps are taken to hold the important terrain in the vicinity of K, pending the arrival of elements from the main body. right and rear from the vicinity of the woods east of I. elements now in contact to support the tank attack by attacking generally astride Route 2. During the progress of this attack, the air service reported a hostile motorized force approaching G, from the east. Part of the Reconnaissance Company (including its motorcycle platoon) which has been operating near J was ordered to gain contact with this hostile force and delay its advance.

Assuming that the attack of the battalion has secured the high ground near K, the way has been cleared for I Conclusions Experience has developed the following principles which are applicable to reconnaissance performed by all types of armored units: a. The basic principles of Scouting and Patrolling are applicable to the execution of reconnaissance by all armored reconnaissance units.

b. Time being available, the best reconnaissance is performed by stealth. Where time is pressing, combat must be resorted to.

The Enemy in Africa As Told to the Editorial Staff of The Cavalry Journal by Major Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., Cavalry Reserve The British Eighth Army is now pursuing the fleeing German Afrika Korps back over the route along which we saw it advance last summer. Simultaneously, American expeditionary troops have “landed in force” on the western coast of Africa to allay any possible German retreat into French North African territory. With these two recent developments in mind, the strategic importance of Africa and the Middle East is again lime-lighted.

During the past two years our enemy in Africa has seen fit to keep a considerable army in Italian Libya and, more recently, in Egypt. In addition, Germany has maintained even more divisions in the Balkans and Italy. Undoubtedly, the Axis has had an envious eye on the Middle East, control of which would mean possession of the Suez as well as the rich oil fields of the Tigris-Euphrates and the Persian Gulf. The loss to the Allies of the Middle East would have been the greatest shock that they would have yet sustained. It would have seriously imperiled the British Empire and relegated their war effort to a defensive role in the United Kingdom. It would have isolated, if not eliminated, both China and Russia from major participation in the war. It would have aligned the Moslem world with the Axis, consigned Africa to Axis exploitation, and enabled Hitler and the Japanese to join hands. At the same time, no great amount of imagination is required to conclude that as soon as the theater of war is under complete Allied control, Hitler is not only blocked in his program of expansion, but Germany itself is menaced from any one of several directions. For two years the British forces in the Middle East have fought against an enemy formidably trained and equipped and often superior in strength. At last the tide of war in Africa has turned, and the Germans are suffering their first major defeat. But the war is still far from over, and other German armies remain to be I I conquered. The job ahead is still not an easy one; and our enemy whenever and wherever we meet him, is not a weakling.

This I learned while serving with other American tankmen during the German advance in Libya last summer. We were shelled, bombed, and machine gunned. We saw the German army in action, saw it work with precision and efficiency, saw it push back the British forces, and seriously endanger the Allied life line in the Middle East. Although our small American tank force “took it” and struck back with a final score that did credit to both men and machines, from our short experience in Africa we acquired a healthy respect for the Nazi fighting machine.

I was serving on active duty with the Second Armored Division last spring when I learned that a small group of volunteer tankmen - officers and men - were to be sent to Libya to observe and participate in the fighting then going on. I was fortunately among those who were selected to go.

We flew from the United States, across the Atlantic and over the teeming continent of Africa. This trip in itself was exemplary of the new developments brought about by this war, and the vital importance of Africa as a link to future victow.

The Ferry Command has performed a miracle in creating and operating this route. It enjoins distant continents, straddles sea, jungle and desert, and furnishes a supply line that measures transit in days and hours instead of months.

Spacious airfields have been established in country that only a few months ago was known as the “White Man’s Graveyard.” Comfortable quarters have been built for ground crews, antiaircraft guns erected, doctors and medicines imported. Even new movies are flown in.

Several days after our departure from the States we