INVASION OF EUROPE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 September 1943, Page 4

INVASION OF EUROPE

IMMINENT ACCORDING TO NAZI AGENCY TROOPS MASSING IN SOUTH OF ENGLAND. LONDON PAPER ON MEANING OF SECOND FRONT. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.30 a.m.) LONDON, September 2. “Large formations of airborne troops and many ships are being massed in Southern England for the invasion of Europe,” says the German news agency. “The British have made preparations on a considerable scale,” it adds, ‘‘but Germany has countered these moves by an appropriate regrouping of forces and strengthening of garrisons on her Atlantic walls.” The news agency also refers to the danger of Allied attacks against Southern France, Greece and in the Adriatic. The Berlin radio said yesterday that strong German reserves had been withdrawn from Russia to defend Western and Southern Europe. The Paris radio's political commentator today declared: “The moment is approaching when a British and American invasion armada will cross the Channel and disembark armies on the French coast. Two gigantic armies will soon come to grips on French soil. Frenchmen will see far more vicious battles than anything experienced in 1940. Allied air attacks against French towns are only a foretaste of things to come,” The “Evening Standard” says: “In Russia, Hitler is faced with the most resounding defeat in military history. This is a cardinal moment of the war. Russia’s demand for a second front cannot be obscured by speculations about a third, fourth and fifth fronts. The term ‘second front’ refers to the necessity for compelling the Germans to fight on two major fronts in Europe, not, as some illiterates seem to suppose, the number of fronts on which the Allies fight. Russia’s demand is for a second front against thfe Germans at a point where the Germans would be obliged to withdraw fifty divisions from Russia. It is a demand for a diversionary movement on a scale large enough to ensure that the possibility of a final defeat of Hitler in the east can be translated into a positive achievement.