GERMAN ARMY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 March 1943, Page 3

GERMAN ARMY

NUMERICAL STRENGTH STILL GREAT IN SPITE OF LOSSES IN RUSSIA. BUT FIGHTING QUALITY LOWERED. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) NEW YORK March 28. The German Army potential is still 250 to 400 divisions despite the enormous losses on the Russian front is the estimate of well-informed Swedish military observers. They explain that conscripted foreign labour and women, who make up 80 per cent, of the total personnel of the major war industries, may permit Hitler to put 15 to 20 per cent, in the population’s armed services. With an army of from 4,000,000 to 8,000,000 Germany may be able to offer a stiff fight on existing and prospective fronts. However, the majority of these troops are not first-class fighting material, and only a very small part could be developed into shock troops, mated at 25,000 to 30,000 planes, of The Luftwaffe is conservatively estiwhich only a fifth are modern bombers, which is obviously inadequate'and explains the absence of retaliation for R.A.F. bombings and the cessation of bombing of non-military objectives in Russia.