WHY NAZIS MAY BE PLAYING FOR TIME

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 85, 11 April 1945, Page 5

WHY NAZIS MAY BE PLAYING FOR TIME

"SPLINTER" DEFENCE To Ensure Survival And Exhaust Allies N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent Rec. 11 a.m. LONDON, April 10. There is relatively little to be said in the way of military comment now because the situation is so clear, declares The Times military correspondent. "The one urgent need," he adds, "is to maintain the momentum of the adva,nce on certain thrust lines, if not on all. The one danger is that administrative difficulties may bring the advance to a halt. This would not compromise victory in the smallest degree but any respite given the enemy would permit him to carry out a few measures for reorganisation, which would make future Allied progress more difficult and costly. The one great thing is to keep the front moving—somewhere." The correspondent says that the final act will come only when the Russians move in the north, but then it is likely to come quickly. The weather on that front has improved and communications have been pretty well cleared of obstructions. "The war," he adds, "might easily continue for another two months or more in some form, but V day by proclamation, as suggested by General Eisenhower, might come sooner." Isolated Resistance Centres Commenting on resistance after the Reich has broken up, the Daily Telegraph military writer, Lieuten-ant-General Martin, expresses the opinion that it will be designed, firstly, to ensure the survival of an enemy nuclei, and, secondly, to exhaust the Allied effort. General Martin says there may be as many as nine or ten centres of resistance, all more or less isolated, with which the Allies will have to deal. Some already isolated are: The strongholds on the French coast, Channel Islands, Aegean and Baltic, and the industrial hedgehog of the Ruhr. Others in process of isolation are: The fortress of Holland, German North Sea ports, northern fortress of Norway and Denmark, the Hamburg-Stettin-Berlin triangle between the Elbe and the Oder, the fortress of •Moravia, Bohemia and, finally, the Austrian highlands with its annexe the Po Valley. General Martin says the garrisons in these centres will consist in part of flotsam cast up by the enemy's retreat. So long as one centre continues to hold out, so long will Hitler and his lieutenants strive to keep the Third Reich alive. When they find things getting too hot in centre No. 1 they will skip by aeroplane or submarine to centre No. 2, and so on, maintaining the while some sort of control by wireless. Germans' Threefold Object "In all this," General Martin adds, "they have a threefold object. Firstly, they stand to gain a new lease of life—and time for any rifts within the Allied lute to widen. Secondly, in the process of time they hope to create such chaos and exact such a price in human misery that they may yet compel the Allies to falter in their purpose. Thirdly, if despite all their hopes, go they must, Hitler and his friends think to leave behind them the legend of the Fuehrer who will return to free his people. Hitler become a solar myth may yet be as great a curse to all mankind as Hitler in the flesh. It follows then that at no time can the Allies expect to see emerge in Germany any alternative authority which would be willing and able to call off the war." Therefore, General Martin adds, as General Eisenhower said, there can never be a negotiated, unconditional surrender, but only an imposed surrender. Disappointed After Yalta The Manchester Guardian expresses the opinion that what might be called "splinter defence" now; seems to be Germany's most likely policy. We have seen its first showing in the Baltic and French ports, and if enemy morale can stand the test we may see it extended to many parts of Germany and North Europe. It is not a bad policy if the Germans are sure of themselves and interested mainly in playing for time. If they believe anything it is that sooner or later the Allies will fall apart. An instance of the potentialities of a German centre of resistance is Norway. The Norwegian Government Information Office states that there are about 200,000 German troops in Norway. More than half this force is in North Norway. The Germans have also succeeded in bringing some quite important remnants of their navy to safety in Norwegian fiords and the Luftwaffe to-dav is stronger in Norway than at any previous period during the last five years. The present indications, therefore, are that the mopping up period after the "official" end: of the war may bo '