THIS UNEASY LULL

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 6, Issue 75, 25 May 1943, Page 4

THIS UNEASY LULL

WE, in New Zealand who sit twiddling the knobs of our radios ki eager expectancy as each new war bulletin is 'announced, may be said to have the grandstafid seat in the arena of war events. We, above all others are so favourably situated that we are not so close as to see the war from a distorted and aggravated angle, nor yet are we so far away as to be disinterested or neutral in our gaze. Therefore we can, save for our natural espousal of thes cause which unites us with the Empire claim to have an otherwise unbiased and well balanced perspective of the amazing scenes which are happening in the world about us- We have up till a week ago been the spectators of the steady turn of the tide in the United Nations favour. We have followed closely the Tunisian campaign up to its resounding climax of less than a fortnight ago; and we have bteen thrilled at the daring exploit of the, R.A.F., against the vital dams in the Ruhr Valley. Now we note the: uneasy lull which appears to be settling over the battlefields that mark tb,e greatest struggle in the history of mankind. Except for the distant rumbling from the Kuban sector on the Russian front, spasmodic action in China and fitful jungle warfare in Burma, all land fighting appears to have died down. In Europe, only the incessant hammering by the R.A.F. over Germany and parts of the occupied countries of Europe breaks the otherwise uncanny silence where was once the mutterings and murmerings of armed clashes on a hundred different fronts. What does it mean? It means one of two things, or both. In the first place it is obviously produced by the inability of the Nazi High Command to take and make a bid to retain, the initiative, or it is the traditional calm before the storm. From the German point of view the period of quiescence would be a priceless opportunity to strike in anticipation of the Allied invasion and thus discomfort and probably disrupt entirely its well balanced strategy. From the frenzied efforts the Nazis have made to fortify the European mainland, this possibility may be dismissed however, for in plain simple, language the Nazi armies are so preoccupied with their present difficulties that any such counter action would be out of the question. Let us then study the second possibility. Germany's action admits .her inability to recapture the initiative, and it is therefore equally as impossible for the Allied nations to relinquish it,. The 'quiet' can therefore be only interpreted as meaning one thing—the massing of the Armies of Freedom for the long awaited invasion of the Nazi-held mainland of Europe. In other words the' hour of deliverance for tens of millions is at hand and the decisive battle which will set the joybells of liberty dancing once; more in the steeples of oppressed Europe is due to begin at any moment. Again from their corner in the South Seas, news-hungry New Zealanders will watch the progress of this great and decisive; battle, knowing full well ;that despite distance, its out-' come will spell their destiny as free men or as serfs in common with the rest of the peoples of the world.