VIGOUR NOT PASSED

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 283, 26 August 1944, Page 7

VIGOUR NOT PASSED

German Array s Capacity For Resistance (Received August 25, 9.10 p.m.) ■WASHINGTON, August 24. “General Eisenhower gave a most confident impression that a civilian collapse in Germany is not to be expected till the Nazi army is completely defeated,’’ said the Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Forrestal, on his return from a tour of inspection in the European theatre. Mr. Forrestal said he had asked General .Eisenhower what he thought about the possibilities of the termination of the European war, and the supreme commander had replied: “There is no rational way to appraise the situation. Viewing Germany's • record by normal standards, her people should be ready to roll over now, but any prospective leader of a revolt automatically finds a revolver put to his head. The German Army is still competent and effective, and able when it chooses to put up bitter, sustained resistance, as exemplified in their tooth-and-nail stubbornness at Brest and St. Malo.” “Germany is weakening on every side,” said the Secretary of War, Mr. Stimson, at a Press conference. “Already the bulk of metropolitan France has been liberated, and for all practical purposes, the Allied forces are at present in the midst of effective action to crush the Germans’ ability to make a prolonged stand in northern France. “The only area left for a German attempt at real defence is the region of the battlefields of the last war in northern France, but the enemy’s supply and reinforcement routes into this territory are under constant air attack. “The spectacular advance of the armoured force of the Allied Seventh Army in southern France pushing beyond Grenoble threatens to cut the upper regions of tbc Rhone River, thus running the German plans for withdrawal up the river valley from the coast. It has also sealed off all direct routes and communications between the German forces in France and Italy.” Shortening of Line. The London “Daily lieraid's” military correspondent says that the German forces in France are now reduced to the equivalent of about 11 divisions —a bare 150,000 men. He suggests that the Germans may therefore try to hold the Siegfried Line, which, if held, could not be crushed by the Allies without a pause and some preparation for attack. An American broadcast from Normandy said that about 60,000 prisoners have so fair been taken out of the Normandy pocket. In Berlin today a military correspondent of the German news agency, Max Krull, said. “We are revealing no secret when we sav that the basic way of achieving a line of German resistance that will be proof against all assaults will be by concentrating . our western army on the shortest possible line falling short of the German frontiers.”