Show i j WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS By Edward C. Wayne Mechanized Troops Fight On in Libya As Nazis Show New Power in Arming of American Merchant Ships Indicates Change in Convoy Plans NOTE When opinions are In theia they are those of tho news analyst and not necessarily of this by Western Newspaper Above photo shows the first United States merchant ship as It was being armed under permission granted by terms of the recent congressional revision of the Armed merchants are now permitted j to pass through war zone to belligerent This picture was taken at a yard near New York city as the gun was being lifted to the ship shown in the Formula As a Tokyo war cabinet framed Its reply to Secretary of State Cor-dell Hull's formula reports began coming in from Shanghai tolling of a southward movement of Japanese troops and war materials in a thrust at Following a White House visit by Saburo special Nippon the state department announced that there were no further conversations scheduled with Japanese diplomats seeking an answer to the Far Eastern Libyan Push Those who had expected a swift and continuous British victory in similar to the great push by General army which swept the Italians back Into were doomed to It was evident that there was plenty of fight in the German mechanized even when apparently hopelessly Yet Berlin had not been cheering over the The British sweep at least temporarily had knocked the German-Italian formations back on their and there was little evidence but that the Rommel army would be extremely fortunate to extricate itself from the trap even with heavy But there also was evidence that the British many of them of American were unable to cope on better than even terms with the German The once the two armies had made actual was confusing in the and it showed in sharply etched lines just how possible it is for very small groups of mechanized forces to throw much larger bodies of men into complete A rather large South African contingent was so knocked out by a German mechanized even within the so-called Iron ring of tho British that it was practically though some parts of it were able later to attach themselves to the New Zealand Yet this very Nazi group which had accomplished the maneuver later was shot into hurried retreat and practical dismemberment by a smaller group of British It seemed that the element of surprise and speed counted for far more in modern warfare than did numbers of men or Chief favorable report from Libya on the British part was that all reinforcements sought to be brought up by the Germans had failed except those furnished by There was considerable hope among the British that this factor might decide the perhaps very Some Nazi tanks were found immobilized because of lack of and there were reports that the Germans were forced to fly supplies to their men by transport planes towing But the British losses admittedly had been and only a complete victory would be regarded as reward for the expenditures of men and material in the sudden and dramatic The sudden end of the coal strike bad been followed swiftly by the announcement that the threatened strike of the long-distance telephone operators also had been removed from the picture by a reported pay That there was to be a new trend In the picture was seen when President Roosevelt called together majority and minority leaders in and gave them the as far as anti-strike legislation was Changes As reports began to come in of the arming cf American and the belief grew that they would be sent direct into British it was said that the whole relationship of the United States and the British on the convoy question in the Atlantic was to undergo a There were no definite details as to what tills change would Involve other than it would be a more considerable taking over by this country of the whole problem of supply of lease-lend Considerable interest was evoked by the Harriman speech in London in which the American envoy said that the U. S. navy was German though there had been no detailed reports of such The general feeling was that before Christmas American ships would going all the way to armed protected by the American navy a point close to the British and from there in convoyed by British naval vessels and British Join Nazis Seven smaller European most of them those regarded generally as more or less favorable to Axis domination of formally joined the new Axis anti-Comit-tern pact at a conference in Berlin which was spotlighted by Von Rib-bentrop's claim that the Russian war had been The remainder of the Von was solely between the Axis powers and together with her transatlantic He it should some day come to war on the one side between the United States of America and Europe and Asia on the other state once and for all that the responsibility lies with President Roosevelt the United States comes into the war or it cannot alter the Axis In a Bad Way The Russians were being forced back on their heels in the Moscow territory by the German system of shifting their chief attack forces from one front to vastly complicating the Reds' defense After a long attack which had been concentrated on the southern and during which the Soviet defense of Moscow had been carried on with such success that the Germans were reported on the retreat In many the Germans then suddenly smashed back at and broke through the lines in several important The Russians were frankly worried again by the and said that the which had been a strong ally during the past had again turned more favorable to the who were taking the advantage to shove home bitter assaults all around At one point they had been reported within 30 miles of the and from at least four different sectors came dispatches telling of by the The Reds' southern taking advantage of the forces thus shifted to the were on the and were driving westward at a good having made In one line a distance of about But experience had shown that such advances by cither side could be quickly lost again should the pressure change once Make Sortie The British Commandos tipped these columns as about to active worked a sortie the Normandy and returned i with only one man J British sources felt that the official recognition by the Germans of the attack made by the group was the best proof that at least some of its objectives had been What made the landing on the French coast particularly was the Issuance of a statement of sharpest criticism against the British high command by a retired naval officer and hero of the last Admiral founder and trainer of the He accused the stall of preventing the use of this body of men for several months when their use properly have changed the character of the entire Also included was a brief description of the Commando which made the Normandy men wearing black their faces blacked with burnt choosing a moonless armed with Tommy Bren knives and and sworn to achieve their objective no matter what the They returned with only one man wounded slightly through the arm by a machine gun The Germans said they been repulsed with heavy By Nazis Two Nazi airmen will go down in history as two of the most daring and imaginative of prisoners of Escaping from a British prison they got British flying copied the buttons by carving them from and covering them with and had them sewed onto their under They then walked brazenly a British announced they had been assigned to bomb Dutch got Into a bomber and took Knowing they needed more fuel to get to their they landed again miles away and asked for airport attendants suggested they have a bath and a luncheon before taking The Nazis were reluctant to take off their While they were in the bath their garments were examined and the false buttons They were arrested and sent back to the prison A Job William C. former ambassador to had been given a new and important assignment by the that of special envoy I to the Libyan especially to study lease-lend The former ambassador's mission was to cover the entire Near I j including the Nile river 1 the Red sea and possibly the sian 1 The campaign In north j President Roosevelt is an important and severe testing ground for j American-made and the ultimate success of the effort there may depend on the rate at which replacements of damaged machines can be The President was asked by the newsmen where Bullitt's headquarters would and where he could be The President chuckled and said a Bullitt was to fly there and fly back and make his personal report on his observations to the President as soon as American troops occupying Dutch Guiana in behalf of the government In received a hearty and simple French press reports pointed to the Incident as a forerunner of American attempts to occupy The troops in Dutch Guiana were sent there to protect bauxite Twenty-five hundred A-F. of L. freight handlers ended their strike here under terms of an agreement which gave them a cent an hour pay |