Word: libya
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1940-1949
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Axis last week was locked in struggle to death with an octopus: the British Empire. More than any week in the war the long tentacles of empire wrapped, the complexity wriggled, and the small eyes in the compact head stared defiance. In Libya the Axis fought against Australians, the tough colonists of empire (see p. 22), and against Free Frenchmen, auxiliary believers in empire (see p. 24). In Eritrea the Axis fought against imperial experience, which used religion as a weapon (see p. 22). In Ethiopia and Italian Somaliland, the Axis faced black men as well as white...
Silence. Almost more nerve-tightening than what Hitler said was what he did not say. He said nothing about relations with France, nothing about Bizerte in Tunisia (see map, p. 23), which General Charles de Gaulle says Hitler wants to take to support Libya. He mentioned neither Russia nor Japan. He said nothing about Gibraltar. His only reference to timing was in connection with U-boats. He did not say a word about Ireland, a likely spot for preliminary landings in the invasion of Britain. Invasion remained the one paramount question mark in this...
...action last week apparently had nothing to do with a stroke at Ireland or invasion of Britain. It hinted, in fact, at a southerly diversion before invasion. Roads to the south of Berlin were jammed with military matériel, moving south. German air tactics appeared in Greece and Libya (see p. 22). German airplanes based on Sicily continued active attacks on Malta and Crete. The British, now familiar with the Hitler reconnaissance pattern, could only suspect that a southern campaign would be a sure indication of an imminent attempt at invasion...
...Italians were estimated to have only 50,000 troops left in easters Libya, and about the same number near Tripoli, 600 miles farther west. From Tripoli to Bengasi was too long a haul over the desert either for reinforcement to come up by land or for Marshal Graziani to try to run for it. The main British worry was whether they could wipe Bengasi out before German serial assistance should become really effective. The presence of German planes in Sicily and Libya had effected the whole Mediterranean situation. Late in the week German planes bombed the entire British-held section...
This anachronistic force tagged along behind a string of Free French tanks and trucks as it crept into southernmost Libya. The caravan pushed 200 miles across the desert to el-Gatrún, which the Free Frenchmen took without so much as seeing an Italian. They went 100 miles further to the more important outpost of Múrzuch, where there was both garrison and airport. When the Free French were sighted, all the Italians went into the post and shut the gates tight. The Free French men surrounded the post in mock siege, spent a day leisurely destroying hangars...