NOTES ON THE WAR NEWS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 136, 10 June 1940, Page 10

NOTES ON THE WAR NEWS

GERMAN OFFENSIVE

NEW PHASE OF THE WAR

RETURN OF THE MASS ATTACK

From the confusion attending tHe great German offensive in j France one point emerges clearly. The enemy is making a tremendous bid for victory, staking his all in the effort to force a quick decision against the French, and delivering attacks which are evidently launched by men who are com- ■ pletely indifferent to the cost of this victory in human terms. At the end of yesterday's fighting, it Is clear, the Germans were making a double-headed thrust, the first on the 80-mile stretch betwe.eri the River Oise and the sea, the second on the line of the River Aisne, where there seems to be a drive to the south near its headwaters and severe testing of the French defences at other points. In the western theatre the Germans have made some progress south of Amiens, but were checked further to the east, where they evidently attach import-] ance to making quick gains, and also began a drive to smash through the French line near Soissons. Fate of Armoured Columns. " Some armoured columns have broken through, but have suffered severely from the French mobile mopping-up units, and attacks'by parachute troops also appear to have met with no bet- '"■ ter fate. Greater experience, bought in the fighting further north, is making the task of the defenders easier than it was when the French line was broken after the advance through the Ardennes. The present attack of the Germans is almost certainly working on a flexible plan, and would appear to be based on two alternatives: first, the seizure of the northern coast ports and the interposition of a barrier between France and aid from Britain; and, second, the creation of a salient around Paris, in defence of which the French might be expected to stand, with the chance of making a double envelop- : . ment of the defenders". This aim of the double envelopment has dominated ' German military thought for 70 years, and was seen in the early Flanders campaign against the British and Belgian forces. Good Staff Work. In carrying out the work towards this end, the enemy has undoubtedly been aided by excellent staff work, for he has performed the great feat of getting forward huge masses of troops in a short time, and now, only ' four weeks after the offensive began, is in a position to attack in a manner y which will consume huge quantities of stores and inflict a severe strain on his system of transport. But there is one thing of the utmost significance which must be noted, and that is that the war has now reverted to the old tactics of mass warfare. These are tactics whica are immensely ■ costly in men and in morale, and they can be- continued for only a limited time —only, in fact, as long as fresh reserves can be thrown into the maelstrom. It is for this, reason that the French are able to say that the loss of ground is not important if the enemy is worn down. An ,open road to Paris would be useless if the German army were shattered in clearing the way to the city. , 1,400,000 Men; The French estimate that the Germans have thrown up to 100 divisions into the battle' means' that the Germans have almost 1,400,000 men in the front line for their offensive, for the . German divisions consist of 14,000 men, each of'three infantry regiments of three battalions. That is at least onethird of their "'- total fighting force, which has been considerably expanded since, the war, new men having been called up, it is believed, at the rate Of about 200,000 a month. . All past experience shows that for a . great offensive to succeed ? against modern weapons the attacker must possess a numerical superiority of from three to five to one. Given this superiority and the willingness to make the\ sacrifices required, he can make headway, though sometimes at an appalling cost And this means that so long as the French maintain their unbroken front, force the Germans to purchase their gains dearly, and are not led into any^blind alleys by considerations of prestige, the Nazi territorial gams may prove so many Nazi defeats. Huge Price Demanded. For the small streams and farm land which the Germans capture they will be required to pay heavily in blood and material, and no matter what mountains of munitions they may have heaped up before the war began in earnest, those mountains must have dwindled by now. So while. France faces a new Verdun, It is, in Weygand's words, probably the -last phase of the battle. One r aspect of the general situation alone is of the greatest importance. In the first attacks the Germans relied >on their superior weight of material, their heavy tanks, motorised units, and air squadrons, and by excellent strategy they achieved quick results. True, they -v flung these masses of material against a wide front, reckless of losses, in the probing to find the weak points. But today they have begun a second offensive using human bodies where formerly they used machines. Machines and Men. This can mean only that for once the German machine has become more precious than German life, and that the endeavour now being made is to exploit existing gains at any cost. There is something of desperation in this line of action, as well as a hint of the bank- ; ruptcy of generalship. The comparative lessening of the German air attacks on the battlefront also carries its implications. The removal of the bombing attack to the advanced areas, which.is mentioned by the French, is a repetition of the tactics employed in the first campaign in the Ardennes, where such confusion was created in the back areas that the mechanised forces of the invaders managed to make fairly easy penetration. Allies' Air Superiority. However, in order to carry out this work the Germans have had to concede air superiority over the -battlefield to the Allies. This is a marked testi-, mony to the effect of the wastage of war on the enemy air force, and also to the fact that he is being forced to face risks to push his offensive ahead.