IN RESERVE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 98, 31 August 1942, Page 5

IN RESERVE

HITLER'S BIG AIR FORCE

DANGERS OF A SECOND FRONT

Indications that Hitler is still holding perhaps the major part of his air force in reserve, and possibly hall' this reserve in the Mediter-! ranean area, are believed to: add another great hazard to the Middle East struggle, says the Sydney Morning Heralds' Washington correspondent. Concentration of parachutists in Crete, Greece and Italy may augur a German air-borne attack on Syria, intended to bolster Rommel. It is felt that Germany has not yet disclosed more than a small part of her striking power in the prer sent southern offensives, and will press every advantage as it develops in a determination to drive the British out of the Mediterranean basin, to cut off the Middle East, and Caucasian oil from the United Nations, to sever the Anglo-American southern supply lines to Russia, and. to open the way for a junction with the Japanese in Central Asia. Britain's inability to account for the whereabouts of a large , proportion of the German air force is said io be one of the principal reasons for her hesitation in launching a full-scale European second front offensive. Some British experts hold that the diversion of a large part of the British home forces, including air forces —which would be necessary for a second front —would leave the British Isles extremely vulnerable to a German attempt of invasion over the heads, so to speak, of a. British Army struggling to establish itself on the European continent. It is understood that, the British contend that until replacements of troops, aircraft and material equivalent to those Avhich would necessarily have' to be diverted from the British Isles are landed in Britain, a second front might lose the war for th| Allies.