BACKS TO THE WALL

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 24, 29 January 1943, Page 4

BACKS TO THE WALL

Two meanings may be read into the statements by Goebbels and his henchman, reported in today's news, which forecast final and total mobilisation of all man-power available in Germany for war .service or war work, women of certain age groups being included. The most obvious meaning to most people would be that Germany has suffered such losses and faces such a crisis in her affairs that the whole community is to be combed so thoroughly that nobody will escape participation in the war effort. This might justly be regarded as a sign of desperate straits in the military situation, a striking contrast to the confident tones of leaders even three or four months ago.1 But there is another conclusion to be drawn from the announcement and the action it foreshadows, and that is that the Germans are now preparing to fight backs to the wall to defend not merely what they have won, but even to defend the Reich itself. This may be interpreted as a sign of strength and resolution. Britain took similar action in the hour of danger in 1940 and has in fact since mobilised her resources for total warfare more thoroughly than any other country in the conflict. A tribute to this fact is contained in the Berlin radio comment that "more women than men enter the English war factories at the beginning of a shift." So when Goebbels declares that "the war has entered its grimmest stage, and measures which are about to be taken will delve deeply . into the German family life," and his henchman says that "total war has become a reality," it is not a ground for the peoples of the United Nations to relax their efforts in the fond belief that the war is won already, but rather to gird

themselves with renewed energy for the toughest round of the struggle still to come. The present year in this war has been compared with 1918 in the last war—the final year—but it must not be forgotten that at one stage in 1918 the Germans seemed to come within an ace of victory. For all their losses in Russia and elsewhere they are still immensely strong militarily and in an excellent strategic position, still untouched in the main. It is too early yet to count on defeatism in Germany.