INVASION OF EUROPE

Press, Volume LXXX, Issue 24149, 7 January 1944, Page 5

INVASION OF EUROPE

“ZERO HOUR MAY BE ADVANCED”

SUCCESS OF RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE (N.Z. Press Association— Copyright) > LONDON, Jan. 5. Most military observers in England believe that zero hour for the invasion of Europe may be advanced because of the spectacular success of the Russian offensive. General Sir Bernard Montgomery, commander of the British invasion forces, said in London yesterday: “I do not expect to be here long." Military experts declare that the invasion is much nearer than is generally supposed. Second front military leaders are expected to hold a conference soon in London. Several of the chiefs are already here and others are due soon. . , „ “British, American, and French troops are training in North Africa for coming assaults across the Mediterranean,” says the Algiers correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain, quoting an official disclosure. “North Africa is described as one vast training centre for troops who are destined for future operations. Camps are scattered throughout Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. “Realistic training in landing operations is being given at Mediterranean and Atlantic coast centres, while inland troops are training in battle conditions in the mountains, muddy plains, bogs, swamps, and heavy woods. The British and American troops now in training have arrived only recently, and the French forces are those which were recently rearmed.” “When General Eisenhower arrives in London with Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder they will begin work in a special office prepared at a secret invasion headquarters," says the air correspondent of the “Daily Herald.’ “They will find much of the preparatory work already done. Planning experts of all three services have been working for many months building up a tremendous organisation. General Montgomery and Lieutenant-General Carl Spaatz are both in England awaiting General Eisenhower’s arrival.”

SECRET WEAPON STORIES

“FAIRY TALES” FOR LAYMEN

(Rec. 12.15 a.m.) LONDON, Jan. 6. Stories of an enormous German rocket gun, designed to shell London from France, are ridiculed by the Swiss explosives expert, Dr. Alfred Stettbacher. He says he is equally contemptuous of other “secret weapons. “Rocket guns and secret weapons are nothing but a nerve war to scare credulous laymen,” said Dr. Stettbacher. “Secret weapons are only effective if the public believes in their existence. Hitherto, all these super, secret rockets, uranium bombs, and new, devastating explosives, have produced an effect only 'on the civilian mind. ~ , a “No rocket gun could possibly fire 120 miles to London from France, nor use a 12-ton shell. “The rocket shells used by the Germans against the Allied bombers weigh 22 pounds, with a range of only about one mile and a quarter. “It is surprisng how even trained scientists should fall for such fairy tales as uranium bombs, which are supposed to destroy all living beings within an area of 200 miles. No human being has yet invented such a bomb, and nobody will for a very considerable time. , . , “The most terrific explosive known is called tetranitro-methan-benzol, with which all Army headquarters are familiar.”

N.Z., AUSTRALIA, AND THE U.S.

PROMOTING CLOSER RELATIONS

STUDENT EXCHANGES PROPOSED

(Rec. 9 p.m.) ■ MELBOURNE, Jan. 6. Proposals for establishing a joint committee for the promotion of cultural relations between Australia, New Zealand, and the United States are being prepared by Dr. Allan Nevins, who is visiting Australia and New Zealand on behalf of the American Office of War Information, Dr. Nevins recently spent seven weeks in New Zealand. The Office of War Information wanted more Australian and New Zealand university scholars and teachers to go to American universities after the war, and hoped American university men would be invited to Australia and New Zealand, Dr. Nevins said. It was hoped also that some arrangement might be made for temporary exchanges of journalists, and that more Australian and New Zealand medical students would* go to American hospitals. It was evident, he said, that after the war the United States would be planted more firmly in the Pacific—it seemed possible they might be given complete or partial possession of the Marshall and Caroline islands—and necessarily would have to work in close partnership with Australia and New Zealand.

ALLIED PLANES OVER JUGOSLAVIA

INCREASING PART IN FIGHTING

(8.0. W.) RUGBY, Jan. 5. Allied aircraft from Italy are taking an increasing part in the fighting in Jugoslavia. Travnik, where they attacked enemy troops yesterday, is on the railway 40 miles south-east of Banjaluka, where Jugoslav patriots are locked in battle against' German and Croat puppet troops. Doboj, which was also bombed, is a rail and river junction 45 miles east of Banjaluka. According to the headquarters of the Jugoslav People’s Army of Liberation, the patriots are on the offensive along a line from Bosanski Novi eastwards through Prijedor to Banjaluka, 100 miles north of Split. Allied aircraft bombed German troops near Prijedor two days ago. In Banjaluka street fighting continues. In eastern Bosnia the German offensive is reported,to have been defeated and the lost territory regained.