president roosevelt had diverted 300 sherman tanks from a planned shipment to the soviet union, to british forces in egypt, and they were better than the mark tanks that rommel had. the nazis had already set up an commando egypt, a mobile killing squad designed to be active against jews in egypt and in palestine. but the retreat of rommel's forces ended that possibility. back to northwest africa. the germans rushed 25,000 troops. battle-hardened troops, into tunisia, to prevent allied forces from reaching their objective. general eisenhower wrote, on november 18th, if we don't get to tunisia quickly, we surrender the initiative, give the axis seem to do at is pleases, encourage all of our enemies in the area, the battle is not, repeat not, won. on november 20th, premiere lavalle gave a speech in which he expressed his hope for a german victory in the war, to prevent communists and jews from gaining control of france and extinguishing french civilization. back in washington, roosevelt had already asked congress to pass the third war powers act, which contained an interesting provision, authorizing the president to suspend laws and regulation