"QUIET PERIOD AHEAD”

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23965, 4 June 1943, Page 5

"QUIET PERIOD AHEAD”

GERMAN FORECAST OF WAR LONDON, June 2. That a quiet military period is ahead is the theme of numerous articles in German newspapers and from neutral correspondents in Berlin, says the Stockholm correspondent of “The Times.” Several German newspapers are drawing attention to the anniversary of the Battle of Jutland which, of course, they claim as a German victory. They say that no such victory or quick decision can be expected in this war, but only a slow fight to exhaustion by U-boats. Berlin correspondents of Swedish newspapers emphasise this view. One correspondent states: “Remarkable as it sounds, the conviction is now dominant in Berlin that what the'fortress of Europe requires is a whole quiet year for effecting colossal rearmament and training the new German army recruited in the last few months.” Another writer reports that the German leaders are now directing their efforts to procuring "a period of military quiet for some time ahead.” The transfer of industry is already far advanced and writers suggest that a pause in the land operations is inevitable. The three years’ blitz war has not failed to leave its traces in the army. The winter campaign in Russia, especially, made great gaps in men and material. Then came Tunisia, with its heavy losses, particularly in men. The Berlin correspondent of the Stockholm newspaper "Tidningen” states: "Germany needs this quiet year to train a new army and equip it with the latest Aveapons. Informed circles in Berlin claim that Germany has succeeded in accumulating a new army of 3,000.000 by, combing factories, workshops, and offices under Hitler’s order to bring the German army to full military level again as speedily as possible. “The Germans also claim to have an auxiliary army composed of antiSoviet Russians under a Russian general, Vlassov, totalling 560,000 men to which are attached 62,000 as volunteers recruited in Galicia. The Germans lately have been advertising the existence of this mysterious anti-Stalin force, but there i« no corroboration of itareality.**