The Eighth Army's Feat
The momentous events in French North Africa have somewhat obscured the magnitude of the operations still being conducted by the Eighth Army in Libya. Through lack of means and through the necessary dispersal of our forces during the last two years we have suffered many misfortunes which have been advertised through- out the world, and it is due to ourselves in this country to give full credit to the decisive part which has been taken by the Eighth Army in crushing Rommel, and also to the part which our Navy and mercantile marine have taken in carrying, escorting and landing the Anglo-American forces in Africa. A successful issue to the Battle of Egypt was an essential preliminary to the operations in North Africa. A failure in that battle would have set the whole African campaign in a different perspective. It was in Egypt and in Egypt alone that the enemy had a powerful, fully equipped army which had to be engaged in fierce, strenuous fighting. There are few battles in any war in which the supreme objective of every general, that of destroying the enemy's armed forces, is so nearly realised as it was in Egypt. The destruction wrought in that engagement made it not merely a victory, but one of the decisive battles of the war. The enemy's strength in Egypt has been crippled, and because that happened the Anglo-American forces in Algeria and Tunisia have before them a task far easier than they would have had to face if Rommel were still standing powerfully on Egyptian soil. It was that battle which compelled the Germans to change their strategy and prepare to turn from the offensive to the defensive. It was that battle which made the French in Africa and the French in France believe in an Allied victory.
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