Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1942. MORE SURPRISES FOR HITLER.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 November 1942, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1942. MORE SURPRISES FOR HITLER.

RAKING his annual Winter K-clicl: Campaign speech not longago, Hitler complained rather bitterly that he was handicapped in preparing to meet attacks by the idiocy of his opponents. If I had an enemy of great military calibre (the Fuehrer screeched in resentful tones), I could figure out where he would attempt to attack, but as I have to deal with an enemy who is a military idiot, one cannot say where the invasion attempt will be made. At the present moment, no doubt, Hitler is fulminating against new examples of idiotic action by his opponents—particularly what Mr Churchill has called the virtual destruction as a fighting force of Rommel’s army in Egypt, and the American and British landings in French North Africa. As news stands these two parts of a single strategic plan are developing apace to a point at which, as a step towards still greater things, it will be possible to converge on Tripoli from west and east and to wipe out the last elements pf German and Italian occupation and control in North Africa. It has to be admitted that these developments are calculated to pile heavy new perplexities and difficulties on Hitler and those who follow his lead and to give ' the Fuehrer every reason to lament that he is not confronted by opponents of a more amenable kind. Since he has as conclusive reasons as a cornered rat for fighting to the last, it may be taken for granted that Hitler will make every endeavour to cope with these difficulties. He has ordered a German advance into what has hitherto been unoccupied France —the part of that country in which hitherto he has exercised his will through the agency of traitors and puppet hirelings instead of by a direct use of force —and also an occupation of Corsica. In other words he will make every effort to lay hands on the important part of the French fleet based on Toulon. No doubt he will undertake also the largescale diversion'of U-boats to the Mediterranean which has been foretold by the United States Secretary for the Navy, Colonel Knox. What Hitler calls the idiocy of his opponents may appear, however, even in the fact that the shallow Mediterranean offers to powerful and well-organised air and naval forces a more favourable field for the hunting down and destruction of U-boats than such areas as the wide reaches of the Atlantic. Hitler’s grievance is the greater since the action of the Allies in Africa. —action directed to clearing the Mediterranean, tightening the blockade of the Axis and laying it open to attack in Southern Europe—most certainly gives no assurance that other attacks will not be launched at the appointed time in Western Europe and elsewhere. For the moment the Allies have elected to give priority to action in and from Africa, but they are all of them in perfect agreement with the dictum of President Roosevelt, who said, in an address to the American people a couple of months ago: “The power of Germany must be broken on the battlefields of Europe.” In their total effect the magnificent stand of the Russians at Stalingrad and in the Caucasus, the decisive victory of the Eighth Army in Egypt, the landings in French Africa, and perhaps in a measure also late events in the Pacific, mean that a beginning of great promise has been made in the gigantic task of converging attack ■which ultimately will bring totalitarian gangsterdom to its doom. The time for Avhicii Nazi Germany may be able to lengthen out a defensive war depends on factors yet to be measured, but it is now plain to all that the United Nations have taken effectively their first great steps towards eradicating the foulness that Hitler and his accomplices have brought upon the world. A VANISHING OPPORTUNITY. QUICK thinking and action by many individuals obviously are necessary if the flotation of the Second Liberty Loan is to be carried to triumphant success. Only a couple of days remain before the lists close and the amount in hand, though large, still falls considerably short of the £10,000,000 asked for. That figure most certainly would have been exceeded before now but that many who are perfectly well able to subscribe to the loan have not done so. The remedy for this state of affairs is to take thought while there is yet time. Those who really face the facts will act upon them to the extent of their ability. The essential facts are that this is a people’s war, in ■which all that we individually hold dear as members of a free community is at stake. Tn our case, the alternative to winning the war is to be enslaved by the Japanese. Putting what money we can into the safe investment of the Liberty Loan is a necessary and excellent method of helping to win the war and ensuring that the valiant efforts and sacrifices of our fightingmen shall not be made in vain.