AGGRESSIVE OR PASSIVE

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23802, 23 November 1942, Page 6

AGGRESSIVE OR PASSIVE

HITLER’S ANSWER TO AFRICAN DRIVE “MEASURING STICK OF HIS RESOURCES” (Rec. 9 p.m.) NEW YORK, Nov. 21. “Hitler’s full answer to the British and American drive for control of the African coast will provide the farst adequate measuring stick of his remaining military resources after three years of war and two stupendous, costly campaigns in Russia,’ says Mr Joseph C. Harsch, in the Christian Science Monitor.” ~ . „ “An aggressive answer would be an attempt to turn the tables on our forces, once they are established inside the Mediterranean, by a pincers through Spain and Turkey. A passive answer would be to interpose all his available forces between the Libyan and Tunisian fronts, striving only to retain the now threatened bridgehead to Africa as a means of denying us full use of the Mediterranean. “The only recent official estimate of the size of Hitler’s total armies was contained in M. Stalin’s speech on November 5, crediting the Germans with 256 divisions, of which 179 were on the Russian front. If Hitler has left only 77 divisions for garrisoning the occupied countries, fighting in Tnpolitania, and providing home reserves, he is scarcely in a position to launch a major offensive round the two ends of the Mediterranean. iCi “The moment Hitler shows his hand we will know reasonably accurately the extent of his resources, and be able to calculate the likely duration of the war. If he chooses the central Mediterranean it will mean that the war can end sooner than realistic minds have hitherto dared to hope.”