5. Sufficient land forces cannot be made available for two or three months for a large scale move into North Africa, unless the present Russian attacks die down sufficiently to enable the Germans to withdraw and refit the necessary forces, or the Germans have been able to form new armoured formations in Central Germany. Neither of these conditions is likely to be fulfilled. In the present circumstances Germany is unlikely to assume large new commitments in North Africa during the winter such as would prevent her from renewing operations in Russia with the maximum forces in the spring.