THE RACE FOR BERLIN

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 8, Issue 50, 20 February 1945, Page 4

THE RACE FOR BERLIN

WHILE in the picturesque language of Dr. Goebbels 'Berlin strips for action' it is interesting to note the effect of the closing scenes of the drama which will preclude the end of the boasted Third Reich and the downfall'•of Naziism. Germany is tasting the bitterness of defeat and destruction as never before. Her gall-cup is full to overflowing, for not only have her towns been pulverised, her armies decimated beyond recognition but her whole domestic structure, upon which the Nazi regime was so securely based, has been torn asunder and laid waste. Everywhere there is death and destruction, famine and disease. As if this were not sufficient, five great armies of implacable foemen, recognising only the slogan of 'unconditional surrender' are closing relentlessly in or her doomed capital. From the east two Russian Generals, drawn from peasant stock, and raised in the new Soviet school of war tactics (of which the world at large knows only too little) converge beyond the fateful River Oder with countless armed men. From the South West, another Russian army pushes up from the Hun garian plains. On ine Sout.i the Anglo Americans battle tor the exits to the Tyrolese tablelands driving the remnants of the German-Italian garrison steadily northwards. From the low-countries a new forest of bayonets drive forward an opening in the Seigfried Line, where the: English-speak-ing allies under the veteran Montgomery surge forward against Germany's western rampart. "How German morale is keeping up when it should have collapsed months ago is a miracle," remarks a Swedish national recently returned from Berlin. "The Germans have ceased to curse; they have even forgotten to be hysterical!" The vivid pen-picture produced by these few lines is sufficient enough to convey th© grimness of life in B6rlin. Alr6ady the towns burdened population has been swelled by two millions from the west —the helpless, the aged, the young. Vainly seeking for a haven they have gravitated to the stronghold of the fuehrer who hitherto has boasted that he would always be personally responsible for their welfare. What now, as the endless desolate and broken procession of human misery moves slowly in to the blistered and rumed capital: Germany s war of desperation will apparently be carried on to the last ditch, egged on by the Nazi criminals who alone prolong its duration in order to save their own cringing bodies from the just fate that awaits them.-Which of the invading forces will be first to reach this modern stronghold o± sulfedns:? For reasons which do not require a great deal ot thought it is quite possible that they will be composed of British and American soldiers.