"Little Dunkirk"

Hot little Berbera, capital of British Somaliland, last week went down in the annals of World War II on the same list as Andalsnes, Namsos, Narvik and Dunkirk. Another "strategic withdrawal" was performed there by the British after only two weeks of fighting against Italy's mechanized invasion. To Italy went 344,700 new subjects in 68,000 square miles of new territory which, while far from rich or productive, rounded out her total hold on Africa's northeast shoulder, rid her of a rear threat to further operations against the British in Egypt, Suez, Palestine, the Sudan and Kenya. Also to Italy went the first tangible victory in her war with Britain and a chance for Fascists to crow over a "Little Dunkirk."

Contingents of Rhodesian and Indian troops, about 7,000 strong, sent belatedly to reinforce the 560-man Somaliland Camel Corps, failed to stem Italian columns pressing along the coast from the west and through the mountains from the south, in temperatures of 120DEG Fahrenheit. The British made two stands outside of Berbera and then departed. Great Britain, with only 120,000 troops in the Middle East and with a situation in India too delicate to permit heavy troop withdrawals from there, was in no position to pour in enough men for a real defense. The Italians viewed Berbera as one more base from which to harry Aden in their effort to close off the Red Sea. The British, who have destroyed or driven to cover all Italian warships (mostly submarines) east of Suez, fell back on the philosophical reflection that "ports do not control the sea, but command of the sea controls the ports." The Britons' greatest loss was in prestige, especially among Arabs.

The British War Office made the best of it by declaring that its purpose in defending Somaliland at all was "to inflict the maximum losses on the enemy until withdrawal became inevitable. ... All guns except two . . . have been embarked. A great part of the materiel, stores and equipment has also been evacuated and the remainder destroyed. Our wounded have been safely brought away. . . . Enemy losses, particularly among the Blackshirt units, have been heavy and out of all proportion to our own."

Meanwhile in Libya the British tried an offensive of prevention, knowing that General Rodolfo Graziani was massing at least two divisions at Bardia, on the coast, for a drive into Egypt. Early one morning the British Fleet based at Alexandria suddenly appeared off Bardia. On the bulletin board of one of the battleships the captain had posted a notice: "This action will be short and sharp and we shall have some fun." For 25 minutes the 15-inch guns of the battleships and the 6-inchers of the cruisers poured a steel rain into Bardia. Aerial spotters reported the damage to supplies was heavy. The Italians admitted only one soldier killed, eleven wounded, by more than 300 shells. The British ships left for home as abruptly as they had come, and in due course two vengeful flights of Savoia bombers caught them up. Stick after stick of bombs plunged down, but all struck the sea. British fighters, claimed ten or eleven of the Savoias shot down. No Italian warships showed during the action, which the British said only proved once more their naval mastery in the eastern Mediterranean.

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