GRAVE SITUATION

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 180, 1 August 1944, Page 5

GRAVE SITUATION

GERMAN ADMISSION

Broadcast To Wehrmacht On Forces Radio N.Z. Press Association —Copyright Rec. 11 a.m. LONDON, July 31. Broadcasting to the Wehrmacht on the German forces radio, Hans Liebscher admitted that the situation facing Germany is very grave. "It would be criminal," he said, "to deny that the situation has become very, very grave. It is no good adopting the ostrich policy of burying our heads in the sand and pretending that we are not concerned. The enemy, after years of strenuous effort, has now thrown in all his accumulated human and material preponderance, which have inevitably caused us to suffer serious reverses. We must now meet quantity with quality. We need better weapons, more fanatical fighters, superior leadership and, above all, more firmly-knit war morale.

"It will do no harm if we get a clear picture of what would happen if some misguided dreamers took it into their heads that this war could be given up now only to he resumed later. Either we win the war or lose all. There can be no honourable capitulation for Germany. We are in the midst of a crisis and the war of nerves has reached its climax."

A message from New York states that Tokyo official radio says the Prime Minister, Koiso, told a Press conference that air raids against Japan certainly were unavoidable. He admitted that the war situation in the Pacific had grown more serious.

The radio emphasised the seriousness of the American landings on Guam, Saipan and Tinian, and the pounding of the West Carolines by 800 American planes on July 25, 26 and 27.