Into the Cap

There was still fighting to be done in Tunisia early this week. Axis remnants straggled toward Cap Bon, the thumb of the Tunisian hand pointing bluntly at Sicily. Some Germans and Italians were already there, and certain prepared defenses had been built. Correspondents spoke of the peninsula as a potential Bataan.

But Cap Bon would never be a Bataan, any more than Tunisia had ever been a "Stalingrad or could ever be a Dunkirk. Bataan served a strategic purpose: it denied Manila Bay to the Japs for many weeks. Cap Bon can serve no strategic purpose: the Allies can push on toward Europe without it.

The cape itself affords a fairly good defensive position--a narrow neck of land with some mountains at its base which make an impressive sight from ancient Carthage across the Gulf of Tunis. It is not nearly as wild as Bataan, for it has open olive groves and flat fields. It is 18 miles by 35. It has three small airports which can easily be neutralized. For some time the Axis has been building wooden jetties which can service landing barges.

Early this week infantry of the Afrika Korps which had stood opposite the Eighth Army held a bulge inland from the base of the Cap. The French XIX Corps and units of the Eighth which had not moved north for the main attack (see col. 2) moved slowly forward, reducing the bulge. From the north, British armor cut down across the mouth of the Cap. slicing into the flank of the bulge. Cap Bon was just a place for a useless last stand.

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