TIME TO STRIKE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 35, 11 February 1943, Page 5

TIME TO STRIKE

GERMANY "GROGGY" Allies Have Opportunity To Shorten The War N.Z. Press Association. —Copyright Noon. NEW YORK, Feb. 10. "It is a sound principle m war and in the boxing ring to leap for the kill when one's opponent is groggy, says the New York Timet, commentator, Hanson Baldwin. "Considerable Allied risks, therefore, are fully justified by Germany's present situation. The events of the past two months, which had their climax in the capture of Kursk, have presented the Allies with an opportunity to shorten the war.

"Germany is now engaged on gigantic mobilisation throughout Europe, but her new divisions will not be ready before summer. If the British and Americans utilise this opportunity to increase the strain on Hitler's manpower by establishing a new -European front, Germany may be dealt a fatal blow.

"Speedy Allied operations are also indicated in the Pacific, where our position on Guadalcanar is very strong after the Japanese! abandonment, but it must be recognised that we have been forced to utilise much of our Pacific strength on Guadalcanar while our positions on other sectors of the great arc around the West Pacific are unequally strong.

"The next Allied step in this area will be far harder because new and reinforced Japanese bases dot the Northern Solomons and surrounding islands."