(a) shortage of M/T in Tripolitania and the fact that Rommel is living on day to day supplies of petrol, would compel him to carry out any withdrawal by stages; (b) If Rommel abandoned the airfields around Tripoli and the port of Tripoli to the Allies, the ports and communications in Tunisia on which the Axis would then be dependent for supplies would be subject to short range bombing from yet another area in addition to Malta and Algeria. (c) A wholesale and hurried withdrawal would inevitably mean that once again the bulk of the Italian forces in the forward area would have to be abandoned.