Word: libyans
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...Eden-Dill-Cripps visit to Ankara was apparently quite successful. Earlier in the week German Ambassador to Turkey Franz von Papen had practiced the standard Hitlerian strategy of showing Turkish officials a cinema of Germany's western conquests. Anthony Eden countered by exhibiting films of Britain's Libyan victories. Final upshot was that the Anglo-Turkish alliance was strongly reaffirmed. Turkey rushed additional troops to the Bulgarian border, and closed the Dardanelles to all but ships with special permits and Turkish naval pilots. Turkey "nullified" her two-week old non-aggression pact with Bulgaria, and many observers thought...
What Next? The Libyan campaign was won but not finished. One of the problems was all too familiar to the British: how to administer the natives. In his recent speech summing up the Battle of Cyrenaica, Winston Churchill said: "The unhappy Arab tribes who have for 30 years suffered from the cruelty of Italian rule . . . have at last seen their oppressors in disorderly flight or led off in endless droves as prisoners of war." Last week, near the white walls, bright cupolas and date palms of Giarabub Fort, 150 miles south of Bardia, and the last East Libyan post still...
From the military point of view, also, the Libyan campaign left some unfinished business. The worst nuisance was German air activity. Last week for the first time, the R. A. F. revealed that not only were comparatively defenseless Junkers Stukas and Heinkel bombers being used by the Germans over Libya, but also some up-to-the-minute Messerschmitt fighters to cover them. In unconquered Libya there were still three important air bases-Homs, Misurata, Castel Benito (near Tripoli). But for the most part the Germans were operating out of Sicily...
Benito Mussolini's optimism in the face of this continuing difficulty in Albania, and even after the Libyan tragedy, arose from one thing alone-Adolf Hitler's help. About this help II Duce made one very significant statement. He referred to "German air and armored detachments now in the Mediterranean." Every one had known about the air assistance, but the presence of German armored units in the area was news. These units could not very well have been transferred across the Mediterranean, which is Britain's lake, to Libya. They were doubtless in the Mediterranean area...
When the raiders struck again last week, the British were working with General Charles de Gaulle's forces once more. As before, a Free French column pressed up the ancient Faya-Tekro caravan route from Chad, swung out into the Libyan desert, where they were joined by the British. This time they even had planes to help them. They raced in over the Cufra oases, an important refueling centre for Italian transport planes supplying Italy's East African Armies, smashed the airfield and opened the way for a successful attack by mechanized ground troops...