Surprise Attack

Imperial troops west of Tobruk were almost certain that Field Marshal Erwin Rommel would resume the offensive. R.A.F. reconnaissance planes reported German tanks and infantry moving up the coast to the front at Ain-et-Tmimi. Patrols met the stiffest resistance in weeks.

Then suddenly the attack came. But it was not German. And it was not British.

The force which struck both sides equally hard last week was a hot, enervating, 35-m.p.h., dust-laden, southerly wind. Arabs have named the maddening wind khamsin (which means 50) because it seems to last for 50 days. Actually it subsides in less than a week, but if it blows longer than five days, tribal law provides no punishment for distracted Arabs who slay their wives.

While the khamsin was blowing itself out, the British discussed rumors that Marshal Rommel had been recalled, possibly to command an army on the Eastern Front. It was said that his Libyan staff was now sufficiently trained to carry on without him. Rommel's smart tactics had been as maddening as the khamsin, but neither Rommel nor the khamsin made restless British troops as furious as a letter seized from a German officer of the 104th Infantry Regiment. The letter gave credit to the English as "coldblooded infighters, arrogant and proud" prisoners, but concluded: "So far his tank tactics have shown no conception of concentration of force. . . . The tactics and methods of his infantry when advancing to attack can only be described as unimaginative. Incomprehensible crowding during an advance often gives the impression of insufficient training."

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