OFFENSIVE ACTION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 June 1943, Page 4

OFFENSIVE ACTION

SAID TO BE PLANNED BY GERMANS

TALK OF COMING RAIDS ON BRITAIN.

IN ATTEMPT TO DISTURB PREPARATIONS.

(By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.50 a.m.) • LONDON, June 17. German military circles expect a state of equilibrium to continue on the Eastern front and a British invasion of France sooner or later, reports the Berlin correspondent of the “Gazette De Lausanne,” in a review of current German military opinion.

However, he adds, Germany is also planning offensive moves. For some time there has been talk about the possibility of operations by Germany in the west. The correspondent says that according to available information, Germany has no intention of remaining everywhere on the defensive. Offensive operations are foreshadowed and certain indications clearly permit this assumption, especially in view of the concentration of motorised reserves near the Channel and north of the Pyrenees. High German military circles do not expect an invasion across the Mediterranean, but rather at a point where supplies will be easily procurable, for example in the direction of France from Flanders or Brittany, or a drive against the Loire Valley. The correspondent says Germany apparently thinks the most effective way of parrying an invasion would be by disturbing Allied preparations, and the formation of German commando forces indicates large-scale raids on Britain to hamper Allied invasion preparations.

The Berlin radio, commenting on the chances of an Allied invasion of Europe, says: “During the last few days, the German fighter strength in the west has been considerably increased. Today .the enemy must reckon with a German fighter defence which only a fortnight ago he estimated at less than half its actual strength. The Allied High Command knows that it will not encounter in Europ'e imaginary fortifications, as in the case of Africa.”