NOTES ON THE WAR

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 64, 13 September 1943, Page 5

NOTES ON THE WAR

BALKANS NEXT?

ALLIES ON ADRIATIC

Events have moved fast at the weekend and are likely to move faster. The most important military success for the Anglo-American forces in Italy is the seizure of Brindisi, the great Adriatic port on the Strait of Otranto and the historic stepping stone to the Balkan Peninsula.

Brindisi, the old Roman Brundisium, is only 70 miles across the strait from Valona, the port of Albania, much in the news in 1940-41, when the Italians were trying to conquer Greece on their own and were badly beaten. In the struggle between Caesar and Pompey for the oyerlordship of Ancient Rome, Brindisi played a great part. It was from Brindisi that Pompey, after Caesar crossed the Rubicon and entered Rome, withdrew his army to the Balkans, followed shortly by Caesar. Pompey entrenched himself at Dyrrachuim (Durazzo), • but after having had the best of the siege withdrew to Macedonia, where he was finally defeated by Caesar at the Battle of Pharsalia. It was through Brindisi a few years later that the conspirators who assassinated Caesar on the Ides of March fled to the Balkans to be beaten at the Battle.of Philippi by the first of the Roman Emperors Augustus. Modern Italy converted Brindisi into a first-class port from which overland passengers for Australia and the Far East picked up the liners after their voyage from Britain across the Bay of Biscay and through, the Strait of Gibraltar.

Landing- Limitations

The Allies are now firmly established in Italy at several points—the Eighth Army in the toe from Nicastro in the west to Catanzaro in the east; another force in the heel from Taranto to Brindisi, and the American Fifth Army at Salerno, in the gulf of that name, south of the Bay of Naples. At Salerno the Germans resisted strongly and the fighting was severe, with casualties "considering the size of our operation," says the news, "relatively light." This ,force is fighting its way inland against j a hard core of German resistance. It was the American Fifth Army's baptism of fire, and a pretty strenuous test. The American Seventh Army, which did so well in Tunisia and Sicily, is not mentioned yet in these operations. Its time will come, and no doubt it will be given something big to do. The surrender of the Italian fleet has given the western Allied sea-power command of the Mediterranean. Within the limits of land forces available, sea transport to move them and air cover from land bases, landings could be made almost anywhere. Actually, the air cover limitation is the severest, i Until Sardinia and Corsica are occupied, as they may be under the terms of the armistice, apart from any German opposition, landings on the Italian west coast north of Naples would be risky. The fate of the Italian battleship Roma, sunk by German bombers on its way from Spezia to surrender to the Allies, is a sufficient warning. Base for Balkans. " The Allies have hitherto followed 'General Montgomery's wise policy of limiting objectives to what is practicable, and gives much more than an even promise of success. Hence the most probable plan of the Allies is the conquest of southern Italy south of a line, say,, from Naples to Foggia, and a move from there into the Balkans synchronising with moves from the Levant of General MaitlandWilson's Ninth and Tenth Armies into the Balkans from the east. In Italy the Fifth Army from Salerno and the Taranto forces are likely to try to effect a junction on,the railway joining Salerno with Taranto, with General Montgomery coming up from the south. It is all fairly difficult country like Sicily. But the easiest way- to Germany is not through Italy, but through the Balkans, as it was in the last war. Incidentally, this route has the advantage of bringing in the Greeks and the Yugoslavs with the Allies and of opening up a link through Bulgaria and Rumania with the Russian advance along the Black Sea coast and southern Ukraine. Brindisi and its adjacent airfields in the heel of Italy are only 500 miles from the Ploesti oilfields in Rumania, Germany's sole source of natural oil. The pointer then is eastward and north-eastward for the moment. Later it may be possible to deal with northern Italy and southern France from Sardinia and ! Corsica under the limitations of shipping, etc., already outlined.