THE BATTLE OF GERMANY

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24501, 26 February 1945, Page 5

THE BATTLE OF GERMANY

Eisenhower Reviews War Situation

CLOSE LIAISON WITH RUSSIA

(8.0. W.) RUGBY. Feb. 25. General Eisenhower has stated that the Allies expect to destroy Germany’s army west of the Rhine *in the northern part of the front in the area where we are now attacking. The operations, he said, were progressing as satisfactorily as could possibly be expected and, given a continuation of the'present conditions and reasonably favourable weather, should mark the beginning of the destruction of the enemy on the Western Front. The Supreme Commander disclosed that the United States 9th Army, under Lieutenant-General Simpson, is in Field-Marshal Montgomery’s army group. General Eisenhower does not appear to mention the United States Ist Army, which is also engaged. This army, therefore, is presumably under Lieutenant-General Bradley’s command.

He declared that if the Germans continued to show their recent spirit there was only one way they could be beaten. The Allied armies in the west must meet the Russian armies In the centre of Germany.

Anglo-American liaison* with Russia, he added, had always been as close and intimate as was necessary to meet the situation* of the particular moment. The Russians had furnished him with all the information he had needed and had done so willingly and cheerfully. , General Eisenhower said he could conceive no worse headache for the Germans than having their communications damaged 'or interfered with at a time when they were so stretched and were fighting on so many fronts, and when the movement of their armies from one place to another was so very important. In the- last few days the Allies had had enough of a break in the weather to enable our air forces to get back in the air in a particularly big way. He did not think there was anyone in Germany strong enough to take the lead in establishing a real underground movement . hostile to the regime. Hitler’s ability to keep the harassed, suffering people together was extraordinary. Referring to the release of Allied prisoners of ■yvar a ? ne ' v P ar f s of Germany were occupied, General Eisenhower said many were now in Russian hands, and arrangements with the Russians for taking care of them were completely satisfactory. Information was received from time to time of prisoners in very poor shape being sent to corners of Germany, but it was hoped that through the Swiss Red Cross we should be able to help them without any distinction of nationality. Asked whether the French Army would be given a chance to fight the Germans inside Germany, General Eisenhower said 4 he wanted more French 1 divisions in battle. He, paid a tribute to the way the French people were accepting the present conditions, and admitted they were having a very hard time. He thought, however, they realised that suffering was sometimes as necessary at home as it was on the battlefield in order to finish the main iob, namely killing the Germans. The French nation as a whole deserved a lot for the way they, were taking it. They were not getting much to eat, and he was surprised that criticisms in the- French press were i more bitter.

VICTORY FOR REICH

HITLER’S PROPHECY

DEFENCE OF NATIONAL SOCIALISM

(Rec. 9.30 p.m.) LONDON. Feb. 24. The Official German News Agency has released the text of an address by Hitler read at a meeting of the old Nazi Party comrades in Munich on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the day when the party programme was first laid down. After saying that his sense of duty and work prevented him from leaving his headquarters even for a moment. Hitler emphasised the tremendous difference between Germany in 1920 and to-day.' “The unnatural alliance between exploiting capitalism and Bolshevism which theatens to engulf the world today was the enemy against which we declared war on February 24, 1920. because we wanted to preserve our nation,” he said. “Then the nation was completely paralysed. Now it is defending itself with the utmost fanaticism. Then there was a decaying . order of society. Now there is an unshakeable community of peoples. Without the National Socialist reconstruction there would have been no German Reich to-day. “The battle is difficult to-day. but whatever we lose it bears no ratio to what we should lose If the battle was not concluded successfully. Some areas of the Reich are now having a taste of what Bolshevism means. Our women and children are suffering a most horrible fate at the hands of this Jewish pestilence. “The very last ounce of our strength must be thrown into the battle with the utmost fanaticism and stubborn steadfastness. 'What our home front suffers is terrible. What it has achieved is superhuman, but when the whole people proves itself under such conditions as the German people, then Providence cannot and will not take away its right to live. After so much dear to us has been destroyed we are only strengthened in our resolve to look upon our enemies with a thousandfold hatred and regard them as what they are—the annihilators of mankind.

“I value my own life only for what it is worth to the nation. •! am working constantly on the resurrection and strengthening of our fronts for defence and for attack, on the production of old and new weapons, and on the annihilation of all saboteurs. _ I see in the British papers that they intend to destroy my mountain retreat, I almost regret that has not already happened. because whatever I call my own is no more valuable than what belongs to my people. I am happy to bear everything the others have to bear. The‘only thing I will not endqre is any indication of weakness among my people. “Twenty-five years ago I announced the victory of the Nazi movement. Today I prophesy victory for the German Reich at the end of this struggle." After declaring that the Reich could not have existed without the Nazis. Hitler continued; “Who can argue with the. fact that without National Socialism Germany would not have had sufficient material to defv the devilish coalition which is now theatenmS our existence? Only a bourgeois idiot would consider that the flood from the east could be countered with diplomatic documents instead of guns. “Attila was not defeated bv a roundtable conference on the battlefield.

Similarly. Asiatic Bolshevism will not be hurled back at some sort of Geneva. but only through the strength of German arms. All the peoples whose statesmen have made a pact with the devil will sooner or later be his victims. Germany will carry on the struggle until in the end—and that will be this year—the historic turning point comes. “Our enemies have destroyed so much that is beautiful and holy that we can now live for only one task—the rebuilding of what they have destroyed. If the homeland continues to do its duty, if the soldier at the front takes the valiant homeland as an example. then the whole world will be shattered In Ps assault against us. What makes me happiest and proudest is the conviction that in their direst distress the German people show the toughest side of their character.”