The Press THURSDAY, APRIL 10, 1941. The Outlook in Greece

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23301, 10 April 1941, Page 6

The Press THURSDAY, APRIL 10, 1941. The Outlook in Greece

The latest news from the Balkans makes it clear that the German offensive against Jugoslavia and Greece has succeeded at the very point where a can have the most devastating consequences. What has happened can be seen from the map on the adjoining page. Part of the German force operating down the Struma valley struck westward on Sunday along a tributary valley leading to Strumitza, some 20 miles inside the Jugoslav border. The Jugoslav forces in this area, according to the Greek communique, drew back in a north-westerly direction, thereby exposing the left flank of the Greek forces defending the Rupel Pass at the southern end of the Struma. A German mechanised column then drove southwards from Strumitza to capture Doiran and cut the only railway line linking the Greek forces in eastern Macedonia with Salonika. At the same time, another German force has struck through western Thrace, which the Greeks did not attempt to defend strongly, and reached the Aegean at Alexandroupolis. German strategy thus resembles closely the strategy used in the attack on the Low Countries and Belgium last May. Just as General Gamelin expected the main attack to come from the north, through Belgium, and regarded the mountainous Ardennes and the Meuse as putting out of the question a German flanking movement from Luxembourg, so the Jugoslav High Command seems to have expected the main attack in the exposed northern plain and to have underestimated the possibilities of a German drive across the mountain - ranges which run north and south along the-Jugoslav-Bulgarian border. Once again, German motorised units have shown their ability to upset classical military geography. The element of surprise was, however, less important than the fact that the attack developed its full force at the junction between two armies. The Jugoslav forces, following a plan based on the defence potentialities of their own country alone, drew back away from the Greek border, thereby leaving the Greek flank exposed. Staff talks between Jugoslavia and Greece might have averted this instinctive but disastrous move. Unfortunately, Jugoslavia clung to strict neutrality for so long that there was no time for staff talks. It is the sto?y of the Low Countries over again. Because their governments were neutral to the last, the Netherlands and Belgian armies, having no common defence plan, drew apart instead of together when the German offensive was launched. It is not too much to say' that the whole military future in the Balkans depends on whether the German command can hold and widen the gap opened by its motorised columns near the point where the Greek, Jugoslav, and Bulgarian frontiers meet. If they can, the Greek forces in eastern Macedonia are doomed, the Struma valley will be opened to the German advance, and the Jugoslavs will find it difficult, perhaps impossible, to prevent the Germans from using the Vardar valley, the easiest and most direct route to Salonika. In short, the British, Greek, and Jugoslav armies are in a very serious position. For several reasons, however, the chances of overcoming their difficulties are better than they were after the German break-through on the Meuse last May. General Gamelin had thrown such large forces into Belgium that, when he belatedly saw the meaning of the defeat on the Meuse, he lacked the divisions necessary for a swift and powerful counterattack. In Greece, as far as can be gathered, the large British expeditionary force has not taken part in the frontier fighting and is presumably being held in reserve'in anticipation of just such a mishap as has now occurred. Moreover, the technique of dealing with headlong advances by mechanised forces is much better understood now than it'was a year ago.