World War: MIDDLE EASTERN THEATER: The Battle Joins

The first bombs were dropped and the first shots were fired last week in the Battle of the Middle East. Their sound was not great; it was a preliminary noise, like the crack of fungo bat against a baseball in warming-up time. But it was a business-like noise, a major-league, worldseries noise. There could no longer be any question where a new theater of war would be.

Preparations had been noticeable for some time. Observers had seen camels in Bulgaria, transport planes in Greece, seagoing barges at the Danube's mouth. Correspondents had seen...