Full Measure of Blood

Backed into their corner of North Africa, Axis troops hacked and jabbed at Allied armies which were slowly, slowly closing in. The action was "minor," but it flared along the whole 500-mile front. Small opposing forces fought for position, struggled bitterly for mountain passes, railroad stations, strategic heights.

Typical was the fighting in central Tunisia, near Sened, where battle-green U.S. troops got a fiery baptism. Their objective was the Sened railroad station, 50 miles from the coast. As their half-tracks and anti-tank guns advanced through a sandy valley, German 75s and 88-mm.s in the hills opened up. German planes dive-bombed them, strafed infantrymen as they rolled up in trucks.

The U.S. force was inexperienced, but it quickly became less so. A gunner drew a bead on a dive-bomber, said: "Here's where I get one for my brother." He did. Captain Sidney Combs, of Lexington, Ky., took cover behind a tank until a land mine exploded under it and injured the crew. Combs amputated the tank captain's leg with a knife, crawled into a foxhole and directed the artillery fire. Pounded by Stukas, the U.S. force pressed on, reached its objective, destroyed enemy installations and withdrew.

Three Austrian deserters bore witness to the ferocity of fighting on both sides. They reported that U.S. planes had reduced three of their companies by 65%, said that it was their worst experience since the Russian winter.

But at week's end the Axis troops appeared to have won the preliminary skirmishes, either holding their lines intact or perching in the strategically important spots.

Soft Spot? The Allies had a preponderance of men in North Africa but they were not all in Tunisia; many of the U.S. troops in action were green, most of the French ill equipped. Against them were upward of 150,000 hardened, battlewise troops, including the remnants of Erwin Rommel's tough if battered army, and at least one crack Panzer division--the Tenth, which had fought in Poland, France, Russia. German equipment was excellent. On to the battlefields last week rumbled the new, mighty Mark VI tank, heavily armored and hard to stop. Hitler had poured an estimated one-third of his entire air force into the North African area. The Allies have been unable to stop the flow of Axis reinforcements.

There might be one soft spot in the Axis defense. But no one on the Allied side knew for sure how big it was or how soft. The London News Chronicle's veteran war correspondent Philip Jordan sensed a crack-up in morale. He hazarded the guess that the Germans might be preparing to evacuate without a real fight. "I think that other than armored units, which are the basis of defense, the enemy is removing his best troops from Tunisia and replacing them by men who are expected to do no more than hold the defensive positions until the main body of the Afrika Korps is got away."

But the New York Times's careful Drew Middleton discounted these reports, saw no evidence of deterioration. "There is very little cause for optimism," Middleton wrote. "The end of the Germans in Africa is inevitable but it will be accompanied by a full measure of bloody, bitter fighting."

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