Word: graziani
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Italian strategy was not the German one of fanning and pinching mechanized columns. There was only one Italian drive. The Italian commander, Marshal Rodolfo Graziani, used Foch's plan of "applying superior force at one point." From Fort Capuzzo in Libya (see map}), fortnight ago, started the Italian spearhead-a long thin line of light Fiat tanks in Indian file, three infantry regiments, including many blacks, a machine-gun battalion, a company equipped with mortars, an artillery regiment with heavier 10-centimetre Ansaldos and Vickers 15.2s, two sapper companies with well-drilling and road-building equipment...
British warships from Alexandria took another point-blank crack at Marshal Graziani's expeditionary base at Bardia. During the week, the Italians claimed extension of their drive into Kenya Colony to include Fort Polignac on Lake Rudolf in the north and Buna, a British air base 60 miles south of Moyale, one of the preliminary keys to the capture of Nairobi. The British retorted with a satisfying raid by the South African Air Force, which swooped on Mogadiscio, main port of Italian Somaliland, and blasted "hundreds" of military trucks assembled there for the Kenya push...
Meanwhile in Libya the British tried an offensive of prevention, knowing that General Rodolfo Graziani was massing at least two divisions at Bardia, on the coast, for a drive into Egypt. Early one morning the British Fleet based at Alexandria suddenly appeared off Bardia. On the bulletin board of one of the battleships the captain had posted a notice: "This action will be short and sharp and we shall have some fun." For 25 minutes the 15-inch guns of the battleships and the 6-inchers of the cruisers poured a steel rain into Bardia. Aerial spotters reported the damage...
Last week the strength of Italian forces massed under Marshal Rodolfo Graziani in Libya for a drive eastward at Alexandria were estimated at two divisions (30,000 men). British authorities prepared the public for a "strategic retreat" of their forces from El Sollum, near the Libyan border, to the stronger and better-watered fortress of Mersa Matruh, where Cleopatra used to bathe. Meantime British aircraft, mobile artillery and mechanized patrols sorely harassed the Italians' preparations and out posts in Libya. This week Rome claimed ten British planes downed while bombing an Italian column in eastern Libya...
Italy's forces in Libya under fierce Marshal Rodolfo Graziani, who succeeded Italo Balbo when the latter was killed, could be reinforced from Italy's total reserves at home as long as Italian transports could safely cross the Mediterranean. Water is the direst military factor in Libya. In East Africa, reinforceable only by air (because Suez would be plugged before being surrendered), Italy had one white division (Savoy Grenadiers) of 21,391 men, seven native militia legions (50,000), 70,000 white farmers and workers trained as a militia reserve. Her airplanes there, which could be added...