Wairarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1943. “THE WAR IS GOING WELL.”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 December 1943, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1943. “THE WAR IS GOING WELL.”

* ADDRESSING his old regiment the oilier day, Mr Churchill said: “The war is going well, but we must not imderrale the tenacity of the enemy, who fights with Ids usual veteran skill.” The British Prime Minister’s final word on the subject, was the expression of a hope that “during .1944 we shall finally get him (the German enemy) at bay,” but what he had to say about the tenacious resistance still to be expected derives lull point from the course of events at the moment in Italy and in Russia.

In. both these theatres the Germans have been and are being defeated heavily, but in both, 100, their resistance is'still lar from having been overcome. Nothing is clearer, however, than that the trend of the war is turning more and more decisively against the enemy on land and sea, and in the air. In contrast with the mounting power and effect of the tremendous Allied air offensive, the German air (d’fort manifestly is willing, h’or the Reicli air warfare is’becoming more and more a matter of concentrating upon an attempted defence of home territory and tin* German armies on the main balllefronts are to an increasing extent being deprived of adequate air cover.

The pith of the latest report on the U-boat campaign, too, is that the number of the underwater raiders sent to the bottom in the month of November exceeded that of Allied merchant ships sunk in the same period.

Even in the land campaigns in which the German armies are pursuing what General i)ietmar has called “a military policy which is aimed more at maintaining what we have than making further conquests,” the evidence of continuing and developing German defeat is written plainly. In Italy, in spite of the advantages they derive from holding country that lends itself in an exceptional degree to defence and from winter weather, Kesselring’s armies are being blasted and driven out of their strongest positions. Presumably, too the present northward drive of the Fifth and Eight armies is only one move in an offensive destined before long to extend and expand on a. great scale in Southern Europe, apart from the developments that are in prospect in the west.

It is, however, in Russia, that the progressive collapse of German military fortunes is for the time being most clearly demonstrated and emphasised. The counter-offensive west of Kiev, in which the enemy is still persisting, admittedly is a formidable effort of its kind. The battle to which it has given rise is described as one of the most desperate and important of the war. There is every indication, however, that the Germans are making in this battle the maximum effort of which they are now capable, not in the hope of achieving any 1 major result,'but inspired chiefly by the hope of being able to withdraw their menaced forces in the Dnieper bend. In the early stages of the summer campaign, the Germans were still hoping to effect a great lightening of their commitments on the Eastern front, by an orderly withdrawal and by interposing a wide belt of devastated country between themselves and the Russians. They expected to be able to hold the Hue of the Dnieper and to make full use of natural obstacles like the Pripet marshes. It is said that they anticipated being able, in these circumstances, to withdraw for service in other theatres possibly as much as one-fourth of their 200 divisions on the Eastern front. The actual position is that the Germans have gained no appreciable relief in Russia, and are unlikely to gain it by their counter-offensive west of Kiev. Any local gains they have made tints far certainly are overshadowed by those the Red Army has made simultaneously in areas on both north and south. It appears to be established conclusively, in any event, that the Germans are no longer even attempting to achieve such results as they had in view only a few months ago. Late and impressive evidence of the inadequacy of their attempted diversion is provided in the announcement today that the highly important railway junction of Snamenka. has been captured by the Russians.,