DEFENCE CRUST

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 81, 3 October 1944, Page 5

DEFENCE CRUST

MUCH THINNER TODAY

NUMEGEN A NEW CAEN?

(Special P.A. Correspondent.) Rec. 10-a.m. LONDON, October 2.

Britain is still ringing with stories of the Airborne Division at Arnhem, which stirred the country more deeply than all the victorious exploits of British arms from Bayeux to Brussels. It is regarded as one of the glorious and tragic episodes which will never die in the national memory. Suggestions are being made that the men who participated should receive some special medal or clasp.

Reviewing the present position, "Liberator," in the "Observer," says: "It appears that the period of pursuit has come to an end for the time being, and that the Normandy victory has now yielded all of its immediate fruits. The Germans have succeeded in forming a new' crust which is very much thinner than the old one which contained the "bridgehead at Caen. The outcome of the final battle of Germany, once it is joined, cannot possibly be in doubt, but the question is when it can be joined."

"Liberator" refers to the problems of supply over long distances and the remaining short period of normal campaigning weather. "Whether an autumn or a winter campaign in western Europe is possible," he says, "is a question no one can answer with complete certainty. The Germans may thus have an outside chance of delaying the decisive blow until the spring;

"Not that this should gain them anything worth gaining. It will be a bitter, uncomfortable winter, with nothing in prospect but inevitable and utter defeat in the spring."

"Liberator" declares that "the time has come for our political leaders, to make some legitimate advances to quicken victory and a clear statement of what, after unconditional surrender, is likely to happen to Germany might be of immense value as a psychological support to the armed attack.

"But the statement could and should knock Gbebbels's arguments to pieces as he desperately appeals to the apprehensions of his people. j FEAR PROPS GERMANY. "Fear, far more than force, is today the raw material of Germany's 'remaining strength.* Captain Cyril Falls, in the "Illustrated London News," says that the Germans made a certain recovery partly because they have fallen back closer to their bases and reinforcements, but to. an even greater extent because the Allied forces have- been so greatly stretched and are so distant from their ports. He says the situation regarding the ports is very difficult, and the longer the delay in restoring the communications the sterner will be the task of invading Germany. Regarding the weather, he says that while a normal October would not involve a severe handicap to active operations, the same cannot be said of the next four or five months.

But nowhere in the west will conditions or ground like those in Italy last winter have to be faced, and there is no reason why the Allies should not continue the campaign through, the winter, though there is a reasonable prospect that they will .bring the war in Europe to an end before the winter is over.

Captain Falls says: "This is a vital moment for inter-Allied strategy. Were the opportunities to be allowed to slip through our fingers now, the effects might be a disagreeable and costly prolongation of the war." He considers that risks are justified, for winter, which lies ahead, is one of Germany's most powerful allies, and we must dp all we can to prevent it from bringing effective reinforcements and support to our enemy.

Captain Liddel Hart, in the "Daily Mail," says that Nijmegen may become a second Gaen in the strategic picture. Xhe British menace at an obvious danger point for Germany has focused the enemy's attention, drawing thither a proportion of his forces that is out of ail proportion to the total he has available to cover the rest of his 400----mile front in the west.

+^h^! h0 al,?- cJ eate opportunities for the other Allied armies further south f^Te c faff c the. w t ay A °2 ce they can break the stiff crust that faces them at present.