Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1043. GANGSTERDOM AT BAY.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 December 1943, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1043. GANGSTERDOM AT BAY.

ALTHOUGH no one doubts that the invasion oE Europe by the Western Allies, involving' landings beyond at least narrow seas, will be arduous and difficult, and may be very costly in lives, not a little encouragement is to be drawn from the extent to which the German propaganda machine is playing up the idea that the so-called Atlantic Wall is an impregnable barrier. In light of the experience of the present and other Avars this can be regarded as nothing else than a confession, for what it is worth, of weakness. Pertinent comparisons are being drawn between the current dependence oE the Germans on their Atlantic Wall and the faith erroneously reposed by France, and also by her Allies, in the opening phase of the war, on the Maginot Line. There is still more up to date evidence, however, of the weakness and folly of depending on static defences even of the most formidable kind. Many impressive demonstrations in point were given by the Allied armies in North Africa, in the campaigns which culminated in the smashing of the German defence in Tunisia. There have been further demonstrations of the same kind in Sicily and on the Italian mainland. The recent progress of the Allied forces in Italy has not been rapid, but they have dislodged the Germans from elaborate and formidable defences they undoubtedly intended and hoped to hold for a long time. The grand example to date, however, of the inadequacy of static defences has been, provided in Russia. In its summer and. autumn offensive and in the great winter offensive now taking shape, the Red Army has penetrated deeply and ruinously disorganised a deep defensive zone on which the Germans had lavished every resource of military art in the construction of supposedly impregnable hedgehogs, bastions and fortified lines. All. essential facts with regard to the course of the Avar on the Eastern front are established beyond question. The Germans certainly hoped to stem and hold in their fortified zones, at comparatively light cost to themselves, any offensive the Red Army was capable of developing. It is equally certain that these hopes have gone with the wind. It is now apparent to all that the Germans have nowhere been able to arrest the methodical development of the tremendous Soviet offensive. With Korosten again in the hands of the Russians and the Red. Army rapidly extending its hold on. the great north-south railway through the Western Ukraine, no one can doubt that the enemy counteroffensive west of Kiev, though it was in itself formidable as well as exceedingly costly in German lives and material, has had the total effect of a minor fluctuation in. the course of events on the Eastern front. AVJiile they were meeting and holding the enemy effort, the Russians were able simultaneously not only to continue their victorious drives south and north of the Pripet marshes, but to make preparations for the tremendous onslaught from the KieA r salient in which they are uoav more than ever dangerously menacing the German southern armies. It may be supposed that in Western Europe and in all theatres the ability of the Germans to lengthen out their resistance will depend far more upon mobility and an ability to concentrate positive striking power where it is needed most than upon fixed defences of any kind, formidable as these may be in themselves. The Allied air offensive of course is a factor of cardinal importance in the struggle now moving to its climax. In his latest public pronouncement Goebbels has denied vehemently that German Avar industry and communications can be destroyed or disrupted by Allied bombing. This may be accepted as good evidence that the Allied air offensive has already gone a good way towards achieving these results. If the effects of Allied bombing were indecisive Nazi propagandists probably would be much less desperately intent than they are on minimising these effects.