HOPELESS STRUGGLE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 July 1941, Page 5

HOPELESS STRUGGLE

SAPPING GERMAN MORALE. Germany has shock-troops which are used for the offensive, but she has also large armies which are stationed in the territories they have occupied. These armies are fighting a hopeless struggle against the deterioration of their morale, writes M. Van Blankenstein in the “Spectator.” The people of the occupied countries are quick to notice this, and for them it is a cause for optimism. Time and time again we receive messages from the Netherlands which show that the people believe that the war- will end this summer with an Allied victory. But they do not count on the starvation of Germany. What their hope is built on is the morale of the Germans; the behaviour of the German troops in the occupied countries gave rise to this belief. The personal behaviour of the German soldier is usually quite correct, but this has not made the approach to the population easier. If a German tries to establish personal contact he finds the way barred everywhere. The German feels that he is an outcast, and it hurts him very much. This attitude of the population hits his softest spot —his inferiority complex. He knows that the Dutch ridicule him, and against that kind of ridicule he has no defence. It does not offer him any scope for revenge.