NOTES ON THE WAR

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 82, 6 April 1944, Page 4

NOTES ON THE WAR

INVASION COAST

PROBLEMS FOR ALLIES Day by day the Russian advance penetrates further into South-eastern Europe from southern Poland to the trans-Danubian provinces of Rumania, while the air forces of Britain and America batter the main bases and targets behind the receding German lines. Things are quiet in Italy, while "second front" invasion is preparing in Britain. The invasion of Europe from the west will be the greatest and most difficult military enterprise in history, when it comes and where it comes. The date and place are quite uncertain. What is certain is that the Germans have used all their military skill and experience to create a system of defences along the "invasion coast" of Europe that will be, as far as is humanly possible, impregnable. The Allies have also had some experience in landing on hostile coasts—on the beaches at Dieppe, in North Africa, in Sicily, and at Salerno and Anzio in Italy, but these, large as any in the past, are regarded as little more than dress rehearsals to what must be done to secure a footing somewhere in Western Europe beyond the waters which divide Britain from the Continent. Time and Tide. Wherever the landings are made, there are initial problems of the sea, and all its complications of tide and wind and depth of water; of the terrain, rocky and dangerous at some points, sandy and flat at others; of continuous air cover for the landing troops, of sea-cover by ships' bombardment; of cutting enemy communications, on top of the eternal problem of supply. There could be no greater test for the military intellect of the High Command, the tactical skill of leaders of land, sea, and air forces in actual operations, and the dash, courage, fortitude, endurance, and devotion of all engaged from top to bottom. For the first time in this war the Western Allies will be tackling continental warfare on something like the scale of the campaigns in Russia but far more complex and just as exacting. Where will the invasion be? The so-called "invasion coast" runs roughly from the western tip of Brittany to the mouth of the River Elbe, including the shores of north-west France, Belgium, Holland, and part of Germany. All this coast is more or less within cover of fighter aircraft, deemed essential to large-scale landings. As this is the part of Europe nearest to Britain it has been the most heavily fortified of all Hitler's "Fortress Europe." The Todt organisation and Rundstedt and Rommel have had four years to do the job, and no doubt have done it to the best of their ability. The Germans keep in this area forces amounting, it is believed, to thirty or forty divisions—say, half a million men, plus garrisons manning the defences. The whole area has the best road and rail communications in Europe and is studded with airfields. Sea and Shore. « The waters on both sides of the Straits of Dover are as tricky as any in the world, with tides, winds, and currents and short, choppy waves changing from, hour to hour The coast, starting with Brittany, does not offer many good landing places. Brittany has a rocky coast, but with some good bays and deep water. The tides run high and seas roll in from the Atlantic. The Cherbourg Peninsula has the defect that it is a peninsula with an exit that could be blocked. Eastward are the sands of Deauville, flat and at ebb tide running a mile out to sea—no place to bring ships. From Le Havre, at the mouth of the Seine, to the mouth of the Somme at Abbeville is what is called the "Iron Coast," a series of high chalk cliffs and pebble beaches. Here men of the 51st Highland Division were trapped in the evacuation of June, 1940, and compelled to surrender at St. Valery. Here also at Dieppe the Canadians met misfortune in August, 1942, trapped in little valleys breaking through the cliffs to the sea. The Germans enfiladed them from both sides. The Worst Hurdle. From the mouth of the Somme to the coast of Belgium is what is regarded as the "invasion coast" proper. It is a sandy coast of dunes, with some cliffs near Boulogne. This is the coast nearest England from which could be kept a constant air umbrella over the landing forces. But here the Todt organisation has "done its damnedest" in defence. The dunes are full of pill-boxes and gun emplacements; houses are converted into fortresses, and there are all sorts of barricades, ditches, and tank traps. Defence is in great depth—twenty miles or more. This is the task before the Allies to overcome these obstacles. It is declared that those who are planning the Allied attack are fully confident that-they can do the job. No defence has yet proved impregnable to resolute attack in full strength in this war.