GERMANY’S POWER.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 64, Issue 30, 15 November 1943, Page 2

GERMANY’S POWER.

300 WELL-TRAINED DIVISIONS. JAPAN NOT YET TESTED. WASHINGTON, Nov. 12. The Chief of the United States Military Intelligence (Major-General G. Strong) has authorised the publication of a recent report of a secret session of Congress. The report Warns against Over-optimism. Major-General Strong disclosed that Germany has 300 Well-trained divisions and has raised and re-equipped more than 60 new divisions in 1943, each having 600 machine-guns and 300 heavier weapons.

“Germany also raised and equipped 20 armoured and motorised divisions, replacing those lost at Stalingrad,” says the report. "The number of workers employed in war industries in Nazi-dominated territory had'risen from 23,000,000, at the outset of the war, to 35,000,000. “The Luftwaffe is now larger than in 1939.

“But for the Russians’ enormous efforts, the odds of the war would be four-to-one against the Allies.

‘*The war against Japan has only begun. We have yet to reach any main line of Japanese resistance, or any point which they Would be determined to hold at all costs.

“The Japanese still possess some 2,000,000 men of military age who have not yet been called to the colours, in addition to nearly 2,000,000 of 17 to 20 who are not yet subject to the draft

“The morale of the Japanese armed forces and civilian population is excellent, and the geographic factor is giving them tremendous strength. The longer we leave them, in virtual control of East Asia, the more difficult will be the eventual struggle.”