NOTES ON THE WAR NEWS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 76, 26 September 1941, Page 6

NOTES ON THE WAR NEWS

"WEHRMACHT"

MILITARY STRENGTH

GERMAN TOTAL WAR

It will seem extraordinary to many people that the Nazi war machine, after nearly fourteen weeks of the most terrific fighting on the longest front in history, should still continue to function with apparent efficiency and still to advance. This, too, after conquering, however cheaply, the greater part of Europe and holding it down with garrisons and at the Ime time waging war by sea and in the air over a vast area' from the Western Atlantic to the Suez Canal. How is it that the Allies are seemingly yet unable to take the initiative and retaliate on a similar scale?

The simple answer, of course, is that the German nation has long been prepared for total war in every form, while the Allies, excepting Russia, which has so far put ur> the only serious resistance on land the Germans have met, were . totally unprepared. Why this should be so seems incredible in view of the openness of the German preparations. The German idea of total war was presented to the world in 1937 by Max Werner in .his "Military Strength of the Powers"; how truthfully is shown by the sequel he published this year under the title "Battle for the World." In the first book Werner quoted many German publications. One of these lies before the writer now. It is a magnificent piece of work, of the size of the American magazine "Fortune," and containing nearly 400 pages, including advertisements, printed with many illustrations, some in colour, on art paper. Its date is 1937 and it deals with the German "Wehrmacht," a comprehensive word, which might be translated "military strength," "defence power," or simply "war might." "Wehr" is the same word which occurs in "Reichswehr," "Wehrdienst," "wehrwissenschaft," and a score of other compound words. It is characteristic of the German genius for war, that there seems to be no exactly corresponding word in the language of the British and American nations, to whom war and all it entails is a regrettable accident for which preparations have to be improvised after it has occurred. This particular publication, dealing with the "Deutsche Wehr" in all its branches—army, navy, air force, and the whqle range of industries that supply the forces with weapons and material-i-makes it clear that the Germans contemplate war in a different way from the democracies, not only as something inevitable, but as a means to achieve national ambitions. The book is a synopsis of what Germany had done for its "Wehrmacht" by 1937 and the work even then seemed fairl--complete.

Descriptive Articles.

The first article, by Major-General Dr. yon Raberiau,.is entitled "'Wehr und Kultur" (War and Culture), and illustrates, with pictures of great.German generals, such as Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, Clausewitz, and Moltke, what:! war and the training for war have done for German civilisation. Chief of the General Staff in the War Ministry, General Thomas follows with; "Deutsche Wehr Wirtschaft," covering thegeneral war machine. Dr. Waldmann, of the General Medical Staff, writes on "Wehrmacht" and the Health of the People, showing with- graphs and diagrams the improvement of health and the high percentage of fitness of recruits for the Reichswehf. General Beck contributes a retrospect of the history of the German army with, reproductions of paintings of famous battles. Major-Gen eral Fromm describes the "New German People's Army" at work, with photographs of operations. Admiral Guse deals similarly with the navy, and Lieut.-General Kesselring with the Luftwaffe. There are further articles on training for leadership, on the operations of the panzer arm, and the functions of the U-boat. An address by Hitler as Com-mander-in-Chief of the "Wehrmacht" is given in full.

German War Industry.

Evert more impressive than the letterpress of these and other articles are the scores of pages of advertisements, fully illustrated, showing the vast extent and scope of the industries catering for the "Wehr" and war. From the references to the location of the firms, large and small, supplying the "Wehr" with everything from battleships, tanks, and aeroplanes to beer and buttons, it is clear that Germany's war industries are«widely spread over the whole area of Germany, by ho means all in the Ruhr and Rhineland and the area exposed to attack from the R.A.F. There is a huge belt of German industry south-east of a line running from Mannheim on the Rhine through Berlin to Stettin on the Baltic and not easily accessible to the bomber squadrons of the R.A.F. This includes most of Bavaria, all Austria, Saxony, Silesia, and Czecho-Slovakia, together with occupied Poland. The eastern sections of this area would have been vulnerable to Soviet bombers, had the Soviet been able to retain its aerodromes along the western frontier of Russia. At present a large proportion of this great manufacturing region must be fairly immune from air attack. A Formidable Foe. .

It is from a book like this that one gets an idea of what Germany's "wehrmacht" must be. Allied leaders are under no illusions now, about it» least of all Mr. Churchill. It is incomparably the greatest war machine ever created, for its strength since 1937 must have been vastly increased and its fighting efficiency improved out of sight. Apart from sea power, where Hitler, perhaps" under the sway of Goering's boasts about sea power having to yield to air power, has notably failed, the German war machine of today is incomparably greater than it was in 1914, not only absolutely, but relatively to the resistance the Allies could oppose to it on land, until Russia was attacked. France, on the other hand, was ' immeasurably weaker in 1939 than in 1914, and as a result the German campaign the west—six weeks of May-June, 1940—was a mere walkover. British policy never contemplated having to prepare a Continental army like that of the last war. Key to the Future.

But events have shown that to beat Hitler preparations commensurate with the task must be carried out, including a great army, a huge aii?: force, and a covering fleet to retain command and freedom of the seas. It seems that not even now has Britain, according to the latest news, got fully into her stride in converting all the resources of the nation into total war. It took three years in the last war and it may take as long in this. America is in the^. same predicament, and does not expect to reach a peak of production until 1943. This is really the key to thm futureof j&e, w§£*