THE NEXT STEP

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 37, 12 August 1943, Page 4

THE NEXT STEP

The recent progress of Allied military operations in Europe has reached a stage when the next step in the attack on Hitler's "fortress" can, and indeed must, be considered. The Red Army, by all reports, is definitely on the move in a big way, rolling steadily forward on and round Kharkov, and also towards the Dnieper, which it is commonly believed the German High Command regards as its "last ditch." In Sicily the Anglo-American forces are pushing the Germans back on both sides of Mount Etna, in readiness for a final assault on the Messina bridgehead, which cannot now be long delayed. Thus in the east and in the south of the "fortress" conditions are rapidly evolving which will permit extensions of the Allied offensive at other points. All the time the Allied air forces are "softening" the interior

of the fortress by heavy bombardments from a quarter where there can be no "Western Wall," nor any other kind of wall.. The stepping-up of the air offensive in tempo and weight of bombardment is no doubt the greatest help the Western Allies are at present giving in winning the war, for it is working its way further and further into Germany's war industries, as the last heavy raid on Nuremberg shows. But the summer of 1943 is passing, and if the war against Hitler is to be won sooner than later, something more must be done "before the leaves of autumn have fallen." It is not unreasonable to suppose that the speaker of those words, Mr. Churchill, is once more in America for that very purpose of completing the arrangements for the next step. Tin? plans have probably been made long ago, for Mr. Churchill himself has also said that it is always necessary to plan more than one march ahead. It will have been noticed that more than once before, at similar stages in the progress of the war, Mr. Churchill has gone to America to discuss the planning with the President.

There is no cause for surprise that this time the venue of the council of war may be in Quebec or other Canadian city rather than in Washington. At this time of the year the climate of- Washington is recognised as too torrid for comfort, and President and politicians alike usually give the city a wide berth in August. The first time the President and the Prime Minister met was in August, but the scene was not Washington, but a breezy bay off the coast of Maine, on board a warship. Here the Atlantic Charter was drafted and signed. So the comparative coolness of Canada, particularly Quebec, a favourite summer resort for Americans fleeing from their sweltering dog days in New York and Chicago and other cities, is likely to have prevailed in the rival claims for the place Of conference. There is also the additional advantage of including the Canadian Prime Minister <Mr. Mackenzie King) and the Canadian Service heads in the party. The Canadians are doing great deeds in Sicily as part of the Eighth Army, and there is a larger Canadian army in Britain ready to step into Europe. So the stage is set for important decisions. Everywhere there is discussion where the next step will be. Will it be in the west, somewhere between the North Cape and the Pyrenees, in breach of Hitler's "Western Wall," or will it be in the east, where large Allied armies are waiting in the Levant? Or will it be both, perhaps in more than one place on each front? Nobody outside the inner circle at Quebec can tell, but all the world knows, even Germany, as the news • declares today, that "something is going .to ■ happen" and that the way has been prepared for a "fundamental turning-point."