VISCOUNT CRANBORNEMy Lords, we meet to-day, as has already been said in another place by my right honourable friend the Deputy Prime Minister, on the morrow of a resounding victory in North Africa. This notable success of the United Nations, has, as is clear from many messages that have been received from all over the world, stirred the hearts of our Allies and well wishers wherever they may be. Your Lordships will know of the progress of events from day to day by accounts in the Press, and I do not intend to-day to tell again the whole story of the battle. Indeed we have not yet received a full and detailed account from the Commanders in the field. It is, however, fitting that we should at the earliest possible moment pay tribute to all ranks of the Allied Armies, who have driven the enemy from Tunis and Bizerta and have inflicted such a crushing defeat on the Axis forces.
General Eisenhower and General Alexander, working in complete harmony, with Staffs composed of men from both sides of the Atlantic, have given a fine practical example of Allied co-operation. Under their command, forces from the United States and from the British Commonwealth and Empire, together with French North African troops, have, with courage, determination and skill, 450 carried out successfully the well-conceived plans of the Commanders. It is never easy to execute a plan of action which depends on the co-ordination of the movements of large bodies of troops of all arms, fighting on a widely extended front in difficult and broken country, where roads are few and communications scanty. It is still harder to do this when the fighting men are drawn from several different countries, each with its own methods and traditions of warfare; but in this battle Americans and British, French and Moors, New Zealanders and Indians have played their part.
What has been accomplished could not have been done without outstanding generalship and a fine fighting spirit in all ranks. Nor was this co-operation obtained only between men of various nationalities. It was also effected, most notably, upon another plane between the military, naval, and air forces. The British and American Air Forces in North Africa secured and maintained a complete domination in the air. Throughout the battle period, our Air Forces did four times as many sorties as those of the enemy. Besides the destruction wrought on the enemy's concentrations and lines of communication, the close support given to the ground forces was a factor of the utmost importance in achieving success. This mutual understanding between the fighters in the air and on the ground was brought in this campaign to a pitch of perfection not hitherto attained. No less necessary and invaluable has been the work of the Navy in keeping open the long lines of supply from Great Britain and the United States to the North African theatre of war. Above all, the Navy and the Air Force, by the toll they took of the ships and planes by which the enemy sought to bring supplies across the Sicilian Channel, cut down drastically the resources available to meet our attack. Air-Marshal Tedder and Admiral Cunningham and men of all ranks under their command have well served the cause of the United Nations.
Before the opening of the present phase of the war in North Africa there had been, I know, in some quarters, a certain feeling of impatience. There was a tendency to contrast the rapid advance after El Alamein with the seemingly slow progress of the campaign in Tunisia. But this was surely due to a lack of under- 451 standing of the different conditions involved. It is one thing to fight in the open desert and it is quite another matter to fight in the hilly and broken country of Tunisia, where there is an abundance of defensible positions and a notable lack of good roads. The difficulties of supply and communications, very great in an area of that kind, have not always been realized. But in our appreciation of this victory we should do well to remember the services of the men who supply those engaged in the fighting. Naturally, the rapid advance of the Americans in the north and the break through of our armour in the centre, which culminated in the capture of Bizerta and Tunis, have tended to overshadow the rest of the fighting; but these advances were only made possible by the earlier fighting, hard and difficult, in which British, French and American Forces were engaged against stubborn enemies occupying positions of great natural strength. This bitter fighting, from end to end of the long front which the enemy had to hold, pinned his troops down and prevented him from resisting successfully the hammer-blows which fell on him in the areas where General Alexander had effected heavy concentrations of force.
Thus, while the fighting in the sector occupied by General Montgomery's Eighth Army has not been so spectacular as that further north, active contact has been maintained with the enemy throughout the last week. On Tuesday a local operation south of Saouf was begun, but progress was slow on account of the very extensive minefields laid by the enemy. On the left flank of the Eighth Army the French XIX Corps launched an attack last Tuesday aimed at securing the high ground south of Zaghouan. In this difficult country, progress at first had been slow. But by the end of the week the towns of Pont du Fahs and Zaghouan had been occupied, and the mopping up of the enemy in this region was continuing. It was in the central sector, as your Lordships know, that General Alexander achieved his final break through. His preliminary preparations included the strengthening of the First Army by bringing round formations from the Eighth Army, including the 7th Armoured and 4th Indian Divisions. It was on Wednesday afternoon that General Anderson attacked and captured the much 452 contested hill of Djebel bou Aoukaz with his left flank. Once this had been made secure, General Anderson flung in the main body of his infantry which, supported by a terrific concentration of artillery and the whole weight of the Allied Air Forces, moved forward towards their objectives between Djebel bou Aoukaz and Medjez el Bab and Tunis Road. When these had been captured, the armour immediately passed through to crush the enemy's remaining defences. The advance gathered increasing momentum, culminating on Friday afternoon in the entry into Tunis of the Derbyshire Yeomanry from the First Army and the veteran 11th Hussars of the Eighth Army, and the Tricolour was run up over Tunis by French troops. The First Army covered the final 30 miles advance in 36 hours leaving the enemy battered and demoralized, with little or no power of further organized resistance left in them. In the words of General Alexander himself it was a real thunderbolt.
Meanwhile, my Lords, in the north the Americans, whose capture of Mateur on May 3 had been the first striking advance of the Allies, met with no less success. Aided by French units in the coastal sector, steady progress was made towards Bizerta. The entry of the American tanks into this city, at almost the same time as our armour was arriving in Tunis, marked the end of an arduous advance through most difficult hilly country. On May 10 all fighting ceased in the area of the 2nd United States Corps. The German Commander requested an armistice, but was met with a demand for immediate and unconditional surrender, which he accepted. The great number of prisoners already captured include the Major-Generals commanding the 15th Panzer Division, the Afrika Corps Artillery, the Flak Anti-Aircraft Division and the Lieutenant-General commanding the Manteufel Division. In the area between Bizerta and Tunis all resistance ceased on Sunday morning, when the Divisional Commander and the remnants of the 15th Panzer Division surrendered to our 7th Armoured Division. These two veterans of the desert have been at each other's throats for the best part of two years. It is so far estimated, that since the 5th May we have taken over 50,000 prisoners and this number is continually increasing. Casualties from the 1st Army amount- 453 ing to some 1,200 have, considering the scale of our attack and the tenacity of the enemy's defence, not been heavy and bring the total for the 1st Army since the 17th April up to 8,400, while the Eighth Army's casualties from the 20th April to the 3rd May were just under 2,400.
The remaining Axis forces are now holding the high ground south of Hamman Lif, the Cap Bon peninsula and the coast plain and hilly country as far south as Djebel men Goub, a general line running north and south. In this area the Axis forces are still resisting very strongly. So far, the battle has gone extremely well. It is still too early to say how long the last act will last or to speculate on what hopes of resistance or escape remain to the enemy. But one can say that, with no large towns or ports upon which to base themselves and only the Cap Bon peninsula in their hands, their prospects are certainly not rosy and may even be regarded as grim. They have in front of them our victorious troops, above them our Air Force, and behind them only the beaches and the sea dominated by our Naval and Air Forces. My Lords, I know that I shall be expressing the views of the whole House in setting on record our admiration of, and rendering our thanks to, the men of all the United Nations who have borne their part in this signal victory.
§ LORD ADDISONMy Lords, on behalf of my noble friends and myself I should like with all heartiness to be associated with the tribute which the Leader of the House has paid to the Forces of all arms and of many nations who have participated in this brilliant and heartening victory. Particularly we should like to support what the noble Lord said with regard to our appreciation of what must have been the achievements of the men who were responsible for supply. In the rapid advance of any modern army, the maintenance of munitions supply, the feeding of the men and the immense tonnage of resources of all kinds that are required, even in easy country, is an immense and complicated task, but to keep pace with these rapid movements in a hilly, broken country such as the noble Lord describes, with very scanty tracks and roads, is an achievement, so far as one's inner knowledge of these matters is concerned, that is not surpassed by any previous example. It speaks volumes for 454 the organization and the co-operation which the different branches of the supply and other services must have been trained to exercise, because these things, as we know, do not happen by accident; they only come as the result of elaborate discipline and training.
Another matter upon which I think we must congratulate ourselves is the small number of casualties considering the magnitude of these operations and the fact that strongly entrenched hill and mountain positions have had to be carried one after the other for a long time—because the dates which the noble Lord gave cover some time in April up to the present day. One has a vivid and gruesome recollection of the kind of intelligence in this respect that we used to get in the course of the last war. One thinks of the Somme and Passchendaele and many other places where casualties were in tens of thousands, as these are in thousands, and I think it is a revelation to us of what can be achieved by scientific direction. I must say that I am immensely surprised, and I am sure the country will be immensely relieved, at the smallness of the number of casualties which, I take it, includes killed and wounded.
§ LORD ADDISONIt is an amazingly small number and the fact will be an infinite comfort to thousands of mothers. I would now like to say a word or two on something that I think is prominent in association with that matter. We have seen developed a co-operation between the Air Forces and the land forces which some of us have hoped for but perhaps have not expected. It has been carried to a degree of perfection and completeness during the last weeks which is the finest augury of all of what we may look for in the future. It must have been this cooperation between the Air Force and the land forces which is very largely responsible for the smallness of the number of casualties. I hope His Majesty's Government will see to it that the lessons which have been learnt in Africa by the General Officers Commanding and the Air Marshals, of practical, effective co-operation will be brought home to all those who are being trained here and elsewhere. It is clearly of first-class importance that the lessons of this co-operation between the air 455 and the land forces should be instilled into all other ranks of the Services wherever they may be. I would express the hope that His Majesty's Government will take special care that that is done. There is much more one would like to say but those are the major issues resulting from the statement, which it has been an immense relief to hear.
§ VISCOUNT SAMUELMy Lords, the House rejoices at the resounding victory which we may be sure will be of great historic significance. It is the culmination of the long campaign in North Africa that has been marked by very dramatic changes of fortune. Throughout that long campaign the brunt of the burden has been borne by the British Army and it is to the British Army that to-day our thanks are mainly due—not only to the troops whose historic qualities have been fully manifest but also to the brilliantly successful generalship which has been so marked in the latter stages of this campaign. The Royal Air Force has rendered services without which this victory would probably not have been possible and the Royal Navy also has contributed its invaluable task. It has been an Allied victory in the end and I think the whole House will rejoice that the American Army, after sharing to the full the bitter fighting, should have taken a leading part in this victory and that the honour should have fallen to them of the capture of the great fortress of Bizerta. We are glad also that French troops have been able to participate in the battle and in the victory, and to be present at the rehoisting of the Tricolour in what is, and has been, and will be, a part of the French Empire.
Those noble Lords who have already spoken have paid tribute to the remarkable feat of organization that has made this result possible. It is not always realized by the public that this campaign in North Africa has been fought at a distance from our shores—if we take the full length of the route of supply from here round the Cape and up the East Coast of Africa to Egypt—equal to the distance from this country to Australia. All our troops, all our supplies, until the Allied landing directly in North Africa, had to be conveyed through that full distance. If we had heard that this campaign had been fought in Australia, that half a million 456 men with all their supplies and equipment had been carried there, we should have said it was the most remarkable achievement in military transport ever known to history. That is in substance the effect, and the organization of that transportation should receive the highest meed of praise. When we look at the map and forget that the passage of the transport and supplies, turning the corner round the Cape of Good Hope, came back towards these shores, the whole distance does not seem so far, but taking into account the actual distance traversed the achievement is undoubtedly the most remarkable ever known in the whole of military history.
On other word I would ask leave to say—it could not have been said by the the noble Viscount the Leader of the House as a member of the Government—it that we ought to pay tribute on this occasion to the Prime Minister. In war the nation can only judge by results. It cannot understand and appreciate all the varied and complex factors that go to build up those results. When there are defeats the Government of the day and its head are criticized, and it is right that that should be so, for by no other means can a democracy keep its Government up to the mark; but when there are victories, and victories due to remarkable organization, then it is right that the praise should be given to the Government of the day, and particularly to its head. We know that this great victory has been due in very great measure to the Prime Minister personally, to his tenacity, foresight and efficient direction, and it is right that to-day Parliament should make itself the spokesman of the nation's gratitude.