Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit MONDAY, APRIL 2, 1945. KESSELRING’S FAILURE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 65, Issue 145, 2 April 1945, Page 2

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit MONDAY, APRIL 2, 1945. KESSELRING’S FAILURE.

The change of command of the German armies on the Western Front (has not availed the enemy in 'the 'slightest. Though the reports of the suicide of Field Marshal Kesselring may be discounted, it is undeniable that the handwriting is upon the wall. On succeeding Rundstedt Kesselring may well have remarked, as Foch did in 1918, that he had been given a lost (battle. Although he displayed skill in Italy, lost battles are not novelties in his career. He failed in the Battle of Britain in 1940 when his Luftwaffe had a tremendous advantage in numbers over the “so few” of the Royal Air Force. Fie lost the Battle of the Sicilian Narrows when it was imperative that Germany should retain air superiority there in the final stages of the North African campaign. Sicily was taken from him mainly because of faulty Italian tactics in depending almost wholly on a perimeter defence. He might have won Salerno had he not had opposed to him Allied generals who knew when to employ the last ounce of their 'Strength. In his retreat through Italy the terrain favoured him and he also had the good fortune of having to contend against steadily diminishing Allied forces which voic drawn upon for more urgent service elsewhere. Kesselring s transfer to the Western Front was actually welcome to the Allies, for he could not possess the local knowledge of Rundstedt noi had lie had experience against Anglo-American forces in their greatest and best strength.