SECOND FRONT

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 72, 22 September 1943, Page 5

SECOND FRONT

"On the Day Held Timely" LONDON, September 21. Mr. Churchill said that the front ■which had developed from Africa to Italy was the third front. The second front existed potentially. On the day we and our American allies held timely the mass invasion of the Continent from the west would begin in. combination with the invasion from the south. The considerations would be entirely military. Mr. Churchill said that the African operation was never re- '■ garded as a substitute for attack across the Channel. The new front in the Mediterranean was always intended as an essential preliminary to the main attack on Germany and her satellites. nwwwwywwywvuvwww ■terrible foe we are smiting so heavily will make frenzied efforts to retaliate. NO SINKINGS FOR LONG TIME. "No merchantman has been sunk by enemy action in the North Atlantic for a considerable time, and no Allied ships have been sunk by U-boats anywhere in the world during the first fortnight of September," he continued. "This is altogether unprecedented in the whole history of U-boat warfare, either in this or the last war. "The enemy is using a new aerial bomb against shipping. It is a sort of rocket-assisted glider, which is released from a considerable height and apparently guided to the target by the parent aircraft. The Germans may be developing other weapons on novel lines. , "A new herd of U-boats has been coming out in the last week or so from bases in France and Germany. A convoy is being attacked as I speak. "Our new shipbuilding exceeds our losses since the outbreak of war by more than 6,000,000 tons. Should this continue we will soon replace all the losses suffered by the United Nations since the outbreak of war. We can be defeated by the U-boats only if we are guilty of gross neglect in the shipyards and on the seas, and if the technical ability on both sides in the Atlantic- inexcusably falls off. Even at the worst times we have never trenched upon the substantial margin between us and what is called the danger level. "At the Quebec conference much attention was given to the prosecution of the war against Japan. The main weight at present is in the Solomons and New Guinea, where General MacArthur, an officer of outstanding personality, is directing a large-scale offensive. These operations will unfold stage by stage as the months pass. Japan's shipping and plane losses certainly exceed their capacity for replacement. "Vice-Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten would shortly reach India with combined staffs, which will conform to the model established by General Eisenhower. His headquarters will be at New Delhi. ITALY'S SURRENDER. "After Mussolini fell the Badoglio Government intended to make peace according to the will of the nation, but they were influenced and overlorded by the and had the greatest difficulty in maintaining themseles, Mr. Churchill said. Desiring to bring about the surrender of Italy in the shortest time and at the least possible cost in lives, the Allies had to wait until the position became definite. They were sympathetic with Italy's difficulties, but insisted that surrender must be unconditional.. In the negotiations the Allies could not reveal their plans for invasion, and the real difficulty was that the Italians were powerless until the Allies landed in strength. * i "We offered and were prepared to land American airborne divisions in Rome at the same time as the armistice was declared, to fight off two German armoured divisions which were outside the city," he said. "But owing to German investment of the Rome airfields it was not possible to carry out this part of the plan. We had every reason to beleive that "Mussolini was being kept under a strong guard in a secure nlace. It was not possible for the Bado'glio Government to hand