THE SIEGFRIED LINE

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume LXIV, Issue 6579, 25 October 1939, Page 4

THE SIEGFRIED LINE

CAN IT STAND SHELLING? American Opinion on "West Wall" (By a Military Expert written for The Christian Science Monitor), How strong is the Siegfried Line? From the first day that the German's begun building their "West Wall," intelligence agents, particularly of the French, have sought the answer. Thj fact that answers have not been divulged in the press—and that the character and equipment of the German line remains a mystery to the public—does not mean that the Allied command is ignorant of the major outline of the Nazi fortifications.

set eyes upon him, though I got no chance of speaking to Mr Glyde until a few days ago owing to his illness. You'd better listen to me quietly, Colonel Strickland; you'll think so presently. I say that he is Miles Clitheroe and that he and I stood our trial together for fraud. Mind, he was no more intentionally guilty than I was. We were both the gulls and catspaws of a scoundrel. I got off by the sHn of my teeth; he was sentenced to seven years. And I don't say we were friends, although we had been connected in business before, for he was a gentleman, which Fve no claim to be. He'd made himself one, although he had been brought up in an asylum and had never known either his father or mother. He told me that once. Once again, sir, the man who was found dead in the quarry was Mr Everard Foliott.. The man who stands in his place is the runaway convict, Miles Clitheroe. If you don't believe it—" "Believe it "

"If you don't believe it it is easy to disprove, sir, and easy to punish me afterwards. There must be plenty of warders who would be able to swear to Miles Clitheroe, a man they saw every day for four years. If you will i send to Prince Town "

"I send!" cried the Colonel fiercely. Martin Jarret drew back, he brought his clenched hand down upon the palm of the other.

"If you will not send," he cried passionately; "if you shirk your plain duty, Colonel Strickland, then I will! If you do nothing—treat this as a madman's joke or fancy—l will go myself to the Governor and tell him my story, and the story of your refusal, before twenty-four hours are over our heads. That I swear!"

He confirmed the words with another vehement gesture. The Colonel, looking at him, was suddenly calm.

'You need not trouble yourself," he said quietly. "Get back to your work. Your duty is done, Mr Jarrett. This business is mine. I will see to it." | "You will send to Prince Town, sir r ." \ ; I will go to the Governor. If your ! tale is true, and Everard Foliott is Miles Clitheroj, he =hall be back where he belongs before twenty-four hours. That will do." Martin Jarrett went down the path towards the abbey gates. And Colonel Strickland turned about. Perhaps never in his life had he been so nearly oblivious of the very existence of Camilla Foliott as now when he had heard the trailing rustle of her dress behind him. She stood not a couple of yards away, and no face of sculptured stone could have been more bloodlessly white, more rigidly set, thar that which her lace head dress shaded. But not more ashen and fixed than that of the woman behind her.

"You heard, Camilla?" cried the Colonel.

"Yes; I heai'd," she answered

"My dear, I wish you had not. I'm most distressed. But I couldn't stop the fellow. Heaven knows where he got this crack-brained notion from; he has always seemed a level-headed man enough. But as for letting him go off to Prince Town with his precious mare's-nest "

"No, no—he must not! You will not go?"

''Of course I shall go. I must. It's the only thing to do. We don't know who the deuce the lunatic may carry his blessed yarn to next, and we do know what gossip is, once started iri a place like this. Nice thing for Everard to have it hinted about that he's that runaway convict scoundrel instead of himself! And i pretty thing for Alison Romayne, poor child, if it should reach her ears, just engaged to him as she is! Sorrie people say that if a tale's only idiotic enough it won't get credit; my experience is that the more insane it is the keener fools are to believe it. I'll just see you home, and go off at once. If the Governor should "

"No, no; you must not! You must not!"

Her voice was desperate. The Colonel stared.

"My dear, I must. Everard had b'pt r ter come with me, as the shortest— Camilla!"

He saw her ghastly face now, saw the other face, tragic, tortured, terrible, behind her, and stopped dend. Camilla Foliott moved a pace away.

"It must be," she said. "There is no escape. Dorcas, it must be!"

Must be?" the Colonel cried bewildered. "What must be? What— what do you mean?"

She looked at him and answered— answered in four words—and he started back with a hoarse ejaculation of incredulity and horror. She spoke another four words, and yet another four, and he stood looking at her with a face as ghastly as her own. (To fee ContinMd.)

But at the same time there are many things that cannot be fourid but without the exploration of preliminary combat. This, to a large degree, explains the "delay" in the offensive on the Western Front.

Term a Misnomer

For it must be understood that the term, "line" is, in itself, something of a misnomer. The position is not a line of fortsi pillboxes, trenches, and the like. It is a. zone of varying width and probably reachinjg back as much as 30 miles from the frontier at Some point. It extends from the Swiss border near Basel, running north along the frontier on the east bank of the Rhine toward Karlsruhe, paralleling the French Maginot Line. At this point, and still fronting the border arid French line, it leaves the' river traversing the upland region to the west of the Sr.ar where it strikes the Moselle River at the Luxemburg border. From here it is out of contact with the Maginot Line, with Luxemburg and Belgium separating therir. Then is swings l north once more, paralleling the east Luxemburg and Belgian frontiers, a total distance of some -350 miles.

Haste in Building

It is known that the position was laid out and the works in it constructed in relative haste. In all probability the Siegfried Line is not as complete in detail of organisation as the Maginot Line, to which the French devoted several years of intensive preliminary study and thorough execution.

If reports are correct of a shortage of cement in Gc. many, the construction work may not be of sufficient strength to withstand the pounding of heavy artillery and big bombs.

Work Still Pushed on Seigfried Line

That fortifications work on the Se gfried Li iS still continuing was indicated by a telegram sent to Field Marshal Herman Goring on completion of his recent sp< ech by Labor Leader Rootit Ley

HeiT Ley slated he heard the speech "amidst workers on the western ioitifi* r: lions "

The military value of such a position depends on several factors. Important among them is readiness for defense, shelters, ammunition and food, telephonic communications, and traps to ward off attacks. In addition, if should have protective and tactical wire barriers to protect small posts from being rushed at short I'ange or bombed by grenades.

Whether the Siegfried Line has all of these is surmise.

Several Positions It is improbable that the landscape is checker-boarded with concealed guns and troop positions, but there are certain to be not one but several positions. Three successive positions, all generally parallel to one another, with switch positions running from parallel to parallel, will follow,so far as possible, the features of the terrain. Moreover, they will be separated from one another, when practicable, by such distance as will prevent more than one at a time being taken under concentrated fire of attacking artillery. This would necessitate that the attacker bring his own artillery forward after capturing one position before being able to attack the next.

From the Swiss border near Basel to Karlsruhe, the Rhine River is the frontier between France and Germany. Here the Rhine Valley is the bottom of a wide trench made when rocks collapsed in ages past. Walls of the trench are sneer, high. Heavily wooded plateaus slope away from the crests. These form the Black Forest in Germany facing the Vosges Mountains in France. Here is a frontier ideal for defense.

Almost Invincible The French io-day, .operating against modern weapons, would have as little chance of success in any attack launched east from this part of the Maginot Lme against the commanding crest of this huge bastion across the river as the Germans would have had in 1914 attacking west.

We know that the Germans not only made no serious attempt to attack this part of France in the World War but moreover did not dislodge the French, who had advanced rapidly east in the early days of the war, pushing their lines forward through Alsace to the river. It was not that the Germans had insufficient confidence in the ability of their heavy artillery to crush the French forts around Belfort but they realized that the topography placed all the odds against them and too strongly favoured a protracted and stubborn defense by field fortifications.

Between the v'orth end of the Vosges Mountains near Karlsruhe oil the Rhine and the Luxemburg border near the Moselle River lies the region frequently referred to in military language as the Lorraine Gateway. At the west end of this line is the Saar Basin, over 700 square miles in area and one of the richest mining and industrial regions in Europe. Awarded by the Versailles Treaty to Prance to be exploited for 15 years in compensation for French coal mines destroyed by German forces in the war, it was restored to Germany in 1935 after a "plebiscite." Its largest city is Saarbrucken, near which was fought the first battle of the French-Prus-sian War of ,1870, should forecasters be seeking a portent.

Rugged Region

This entire region strongly resembles the Ardennes to its west, beingi very uneven arid xtigged, densely wood ed, with small streams cutting up the uplafid country in all directions, rendering cross-country travel arduous. Roads of necessity are fo'rced to the valkys. The obstacle of the Atdcn«: ,nes Region did not efecap% Gferi. Jdhw J, Pershing in' 1 his alKtiyeis <xf thfe

situation in rear of the German forces confronting him in the battle of the Meuse-Argonne in 1918. Once he succeesed in driving them to the Mouse River, they had scant hope of making their way north to the Rhine through that almost trackless waste, as unfavourable for attack today as for withdrawal in 1918. What does this signify? That the French will probably find tha''. portion of the Siegfried Lirie between Karlsruhe and the Saar not °o thoroughly organised at .the extremities named. In other wofds, the topographically weak parts of this 1 section of the Line may be cdnsidered as being, the natural openings pierded in it by the Rhine and Moselle River Valleys, which may well prove to be ! the heaviest fortified sections. It will bo noted from recent reports that it is precisely hero that the French are I making their greatest efforts at the J moment. Important Approach Cutting through the very heart of

the Ardennes region, the Moselle gorge, notwithstanding its meandering course, has from time immemorial been recognised as one of the most important avenues of approach through the mountain barrier into France from the north. So it is not surprising that in 1914 it served as the main line of communication of one of the invading German armies, nor should it be cause for wonderment that today the French are attacking along that axis. According to the latest advices obtainable the French moved rapidly up td the line of the Saar River, a tributary of the Moselle that flows northwest past Saarbrucken to join the Moselle just south of Trier. East of Saarbrucken, they succeeded in getting a foothold north of the stream; Successful exploitation of a crossing at Saarbrucken will force the Germans to evacuate positions on the north bank of tiie Saar west of that town, and leave no important nattiral east-west barner in front of the French. This line must be cairied before any deep advance can be made down the Moselle.

It can therefore be safely assumed thac the south bank of the Saar River is included in the Seigfried Line, organised as an outpost and for in defensive operations to delay the advance of the French up to the Saar River. Thfe main positions here can likewise be assumed as lying north of the rivei*. This appears | bornei out by the recent actions, the French encountering- heavier resistance and counter attacks on coming up to that line. Meanwhile the Germans are reported to have lost no time in launching counter attacks also against the penetration made by the French down the Moselle between neutral Luxemburg and the Saar, frbm I which it can prrperly.be deduced that the Germans consider it of great importance. The junction of the Mosfeile and Saar Rivers, south of Trier, will almost certainly be found very heavily fortified, as will the ridges between the • umerous loops of the meandering j Moselle that command the stream and j the valley.

W&r of TrMcftfes

Assuming continuance of the neutral rtatus quo in Belgium and Luxemtoo much- to' su'ppose a renewa* of the last war's experiences— an end to the war movement for four years, and the war 1 of the trenches instead?

: If the Line can' prevent a rupture into 'Germany, if Belgiunh and Luxemburg remain, uninvolved, and if Germany does not collapse internally, the Allies may find themselves cotnpell'd to force ltaly into theopen as a belligerent to' enable' them t6 sitrlke through northern Itely into Geftfiahy's new v province- of operation performed oft'onfe (ft? casioif*by' Ffgnehmmks; wl& 80 fne s&eeesriii tWfe am with ; whicfi- dfßfee 1 is iMimirtely' faiftifta* by