WAR LIABILITIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 July 1943, Page 4

WAR LIABILITIES

FACED BY THE GERMANS CONFLICTING DEMANDS. IN RUSSIA AND IN WESTERN AREAS (By Telegraph—Press' Association— Copyright) (Received This Day, 10.20 a.m.) LONDON, July 25. “The Germans have some very difficult questions to answer,” says the “Sunday Times.” “Shall they let Italy go, or for how long can they afford to prop her up? These questions are complicated for Hitler by his parallel commitments in the Balkans. He cannot let these go because of indispensable Rumanian oil. Tn two ways,' the Allied conquest of Sicily makes the Balkans more vulnerable. It completes the security of our supply line and it is a step to Southern Italy, and the airfields in Apulia could provide fighter cover for a landing on the, Albanian coast. Against this unmistakable threat, if it came, the Germans would stand up virtually alone. Could they find armies and aircraft so to do if at the same time they had to resist the Russians on a thousand-mile front, hold the direct Allied advance through Italy and meet the still more direct threat of an invasion of the West coast of Europe? The answer must surely be no. With their dwindling resources, they cannot meet all these calls together. They will havb, before long, to do something to shorten their lines and lighten their burdens. Somewhere a policy of withdrawal must be devised. A conceivable plan would be a partial withdrawal from both the Balkans and the Italian peninsula, without entirely abandoning either. In Northern Greece they might hold a line from Mount Olympus to Argyrokastro. In Italy there is a possible line resting on the Northern Appenines and covering the Po Valley. The hardest point about either is the opening it would create for Allied bombers flying from bases in Tuscany. . . . These would have ready access to just those parts of Germany which are at present least accessible to us. Bombers based on Thessaly could regularly attack the Rumanian oilfields and refineries. ‘The new scope afforded to Allied aviation would appear almost overwhelming. The general character of the situation is determined by German shortages. The most important of those within our ken is aircraft. A special twist has been given by the Russian advance, if it begins now, there will be no hope of stopping it when winter comes. On the contrary, winter would quicken it and what shall it profit the Germans to hold back the British and Americans in Italy oi* Greece if in the interval the Russians overrun Berlin?”

CONCERTED BLOWS FROM EAST AND WEST. ANTICIPATED BY SOVIET COMMENTATOR. (Received Ths Day 11.40 a.m.) LONDON, July 25. A blow against Germany by the Allies would concide with the tremendous blow from the east, and would transform the present Fascist crisis into a catastrophe, declared a Soviet commentator on international affairs, M. Viktorov, broadcasting on the Moscow radio. He added that the Germans' July offensive against Russia, on which the enemy had placed such great hopes, was based on a real, total mobilisation of the very last reserves and resouces of Germany. “Every German is asking himself, in view of the concentration on the Russian front, what will happen when a second front is opened in Europe,” M. Viktorov added. ‘Hitler at present is fighting on one front. His hopes all centre on the possibility of holding out while there is no second front in Westen Europe which would require the transfer of considerable forces. Only joint blows from east and west can put an end to his hopes.”'