WILSON AWAITING OPPORTUNITY

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 96, 19 January 1944, Page 5

WILSON AWAITING OPPORTUNITY

Southern Axis Front INVASION LEADERS’ STATEMENTS

(By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. LONDON, January 17.

General Sir Henry Maitland Wilson, making his first public statement since his appointment as commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean theatre, stressed that he would not alter the Allied force machine operating in the Mediterranean, says the National Broadcasting Corporation’s Algiers representative.

“Attack against southern France is always a possibility,” he said. “I am optimistic that the Allies will take Rome by the spring, but the Italian campaign won’t be over then. My policy will be to strike against the Germans with the maximum force wherever the opportunity offers. The war in Europe will be wou this year with luck, but I am not ready to say that the war will end this year. “It is difficult to put a finger on the weakest link in Germany’s iron ring, but the Germans do not possess the same strength on all fronts and are already feeling the strain, on the eastern front. Our aim is to intensify the strain so that when weakening comes the collapse will be rapid. Our aim must be to tighten and intensify the strain on the eastern front, so that when the weakest link snaps the whole fabric will collapse. The Mediterranean theatre offers many opportunities to put this policy into effect. "Germany has three very uneasy allies in central and south-eastern Europe. They see their fate coming, and would willingly go into liquidation before the final crash if they saw a chance of doing so. We must bear that in mind .in framing our strategy for the coming to the possibilities in the Balkans, General Wilson pointed out that the weather was unfavourable for any Allied operation. “The Balkans are pretty well under the weather, but they are certainly something to keep a watch on for future possibilities,” he added, • American Armies’ Chief. Lieutenant-General Omar Nelson Bradley lias been appointed senior commander of the American ground forces under General Eisenhower. He is 51, and is regarded as the godfather.of the United States airborne unit, which he led in the assault on Sicily., General Bradley commanded the American Second Army Corps in Tunisia. He becomes General Montgomery's, opposite number.

The supreme Allied invasion commander, General Eisenhower, held his first Press conference in London today. He expressed himself as well pleased with the ground work that had already been done in Britain in preparation for the assault from the west, and said he had no doubt that he had got together a great team of fighters for the job, both American and British. In a tribute to the three services, he said that the good work of the base people should not be overlooked, nor the fine infantry training on the cold moors and countryside, getting themselves ready and toughened for any job "that lay ahead.

He praised the Navy's recent actions in the sinking of the Scharnhorst in Arctic waters and the three German destroyers in the Bay of Biscay, and the work of the air forces in the pounding of Germany. “The troops I left behind in the Mediterranean," he said, “have become extraordinary fighting men—in the navy, in the air, and on the ground. They are working together as a real- team, all the way from the commanders down to the infantry. They are fighting in Italy at present under appalling conditions., The present phase of operations in Italy, is unavoidable, because there is a time when the dirty business of war comes down to a slugging match. The present is one of the inevitable series of low points which occur in every operation while a force is being built un to make a determined thrust elsewhere. I ’.