GERMAN RESERVES

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 230, 24 June 1943, Page 5

GERMAN RESERVES

Reported Contentration

In Bavaria (By Telegraph. —Press Assn. —Copyright.) (Received June 23, 11.45 p.m.) NEW YORK, June 23.

The bulk of Germany’s strategic reserves has lately been concentrated in centrally-situated Bavaria, in southern Germany, where they can quickly be moved to any point which is threatened with invasion, says the Stockholm correspondent of the - “ New York Tinies.” The Germans are evidently not taking seriously the Allied threat against the Italian mainland, since trustworthy reports emphasize that there is no increase in troop train traffic between Germany and Italy. The German High Command apparently sees a strong possibility of the Allies successfully attempting the. capture of Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica, but does not expect an invasion of the Italian Peninsula. The High Command reasons that the Allies are unwilling to relieve the Germans of the burden of supplying Italy’s monthly needs of 1,000,000 tons of coal. Spanish reports of the passage of “invasion ships” through the Mediterranean are interpreted in Berlin -as simply the reopening of the old British trade routes, via Suez to India.

HOLD ON BALKANS Enemy Shows Anxiety

LONDON, June 22. Information that has reached Istanbul confirms the reports of German and Italian anxiety about the position in the Balkans. The Istanbul correspondent of “The Times” says, that in spite of selfconscious attempts at optimism by the Axis Press and radio it is easy to detect the underlying gloomy tones when they are discussing the Axis power of resistance to any Allied attack on the peninsula. . Rome radio, quoting a message from Ankara, says that rail trapsport for civilians has been completely suspended by the Allies in Lebanon and Palestine, and a curfew has been imposed on Lebanon. Motor-vehicles are being requisitioned. “The Times” correspondent estimates that the Axis forces in the Balkans comprise 29 Italian, 17 German and 20 Bulgarian divisions. Six of the German divisions have arrived within the last few months. In addition there are some German naval contingents and heavy artillery units. The Italians hold the western parts of Yugoslavia and Greece, and also Albania. The Germans occupy central Yugoslavia, the region round Salonika, and the greater part of the Greek coast, including Peloponnesus, and practically all the islands. The Bulgarians are garrisoned in the Bulgarian-occupied parts, of Serbia and Greece, and in Bulgaria itself. The correspondent says that German resistance will be centred on Crete and the Dodecanese, where they have recently sent some contingents, and also on the coasts of Attica, Peloponnesus, and Macedonia. All the other Greek islands are weakly garrisoned, and it is doubtful if the Germans would put up a resistance there except on Lemnos, which is believed to be strongly garrisoned and fortified on account of Mudros Bay, which in the last war was the chief, base for the British operations in Gallipoli.