FOUR GREAT FACTORS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 August 1943, Page 3

FOUR GREAT FACTORS

WEIGHING DOWN ON GERMAN RESISTANCE SPECTACULAR RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE. IMPORTANT CAMPAIGN IN MEDITERRANEAN (Special P.A. Correspondent.) LONDON. August 15. “Four dictinct operations are at present weighing down on the German power of resistance —one Russian, two British and American, and one European,’’ says "Liberator’’ in the "Observer.” “The first is the great Russian offensive, the second the great bombing offensive against western and northwestern Germany, the third the amphibious assault on southern Europe, and the fourth is the revolutionary movement for peace and liberty which has started in northern Italy. Each contains possibilities for forcing a decision and ending the war, and all, of course, are reacting on and partly helping each other .Of the four, the Russian offensive is by far the most important and spectacular. Nevertheless, it seems to be the one least likely to force a direct and immediate decision of the war.” BOMBING EFFECTS. Asking whether bombing can force a decision, the writer says that the greatevacuation of German cities—called by one German newspaper a great migra-tion-must. Actual industrial destruction will cause an enormous amount of confusion and diversion of the war effort, strain on transport, delay of production, and administrative dislocation. It is increasingly hinted from Berlin that the central administration offices of the Reich and the Nazi Party have been dispersed to the provinces. If this is so, it would create such a loosening of control that any revolt might have a chance of success. "But without such a revolt,” he says, “we do not see even now how bombing alone can win the war.” The move in the Mediterranean, says “Liberator” in the “Observer,” aims at the only region in Europe which Germany cannot afford to lose without losing her war-making effort —Austria, Czechoslovakia and Silesia, which together are now the citadel of German war production. They will lie under the very noses of our bombers once Italy and the Italian-held parts of the Balkans are occupied. But Germany must be prevented from putting up a strong and prolonged defence in Italy and the southern Balkans.

“Any delay which even the tottering Italiy could impose on us,” says the writer, “would at this stage be very precious for the Germans, giving them time to build up their own defences and then prolong the time that has been gained many times by their own efforts.”

Writing in the “Sunday Times,” "Scrutator" expresses the opinion that Germany is playing for a stalemate, banking that her enemies may quarrel between themselves or commit some major strategical blunder. Germany's stalemate policy, he says, will be pursued at the expense of her allies. She reckons on holding up the Allied Nations not on German soil but on that of her subject races.