HITLER’S TACTICS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 November 1939, Page 7

HITLER’S TACTICS

PERPLEXITY & INDECISION BETRAYED COMMENT IN LONDON PAPERS. BALANCE SHEET OF WAR. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY. November 5. Mr J. A. Spender, reviewing the war situation in the "Sunday Times.” writes: —

"So the question comes back to Hitler. Has he any answer to the riddle he has set for his own country and for all of us? Again we are left waiting and watching. Perplexity and indecision are written all over his recent proceedings, but we must take nothing for granted and we must not let him get on our nerves. “To wait while nothing seems to happen, and yet to be prepared for everything that may happen is undoubtedly a strain, but the time for preparation has been valuable, and, with whatever shortcomings, it has been well used in all major matters. In these respects the delay has been entirely to our advantage. The “Economist,” dealing with the results of two war months, states that outside diplomacy “where German policy is still paying no dividends," the war remains an affair of counterblockade.

In compiling a ‘’balance-sheet" the writer places on the credit side the total merchandise captured and points out that only 5 per cent of this consisted of foodstuffs and those of a type not scarce as yet in Germany. Also included is the disposition and equipment of the Allied forces and the increase in the output of munitions and aircraft.

On the debit side is placed the determination with which Britain has contested the seas, and, although the writer states, the Navy has had notable successes in destroying U-boats, the danger is not yet at an end, as is shown by recurrent sinkings. There are signs also that the sharp phase of air attack has not yet been reached. The writer concludes: "While the struggle goes on we are slowly winning, but we cannot count on a quiet and uniformly successful winter."