NOTES ON THE WAR

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 83, 5 October 1944, Page 6

NOTES ON THE WAR

FROM THE SOUTH

ADVANCE ON REICH

The news today contrasts the slow progress of the Allies on the Western Front and of the Russians on the Eastern Front, from Riga to south of Warsaw, with the more rapid advance on the Reich from the south, via the Valley of the Danube and its tributaries by the combined Russian, Rumanian, and Yugoslav forces. These are approaching Belgrade at the junction of the Save and Danube, and Nish in the Morava Valley, where the route of the Orient Express to Istanbul, via' Sofia, leaves the main line to Salonika. Further to the north the Russians are moving from Transylvania across the eastern frontier of Hungary, while other units of the Red Army are driving south through Carpathian passes into the eastern tongue of Czechoslovakia, thus threatening Budapest from three sides.

Some surprise has been expressed at the temporarily successful stand by the Germans on the present Western Front after their failure to save any part of their conquests in France and Belgium. Why did they not retreat step by step through France, delaying the advance of the Allies and retrieving a bigger proportion of their armies in the West, instead of allowing them to be trapped in ports on the coast or in isolated groups inland? The answer seems to be that the German High Command put such trust in their Atlantic Wall to withstand any attack that when it \w\i breached in Normandy and the Allies on August 1-4 broke out of the bridgehead into the rest of France, and fresh landings were made in the Riviera, the Germans had no prepared line of defence anywhere else. in France. Instead of an orderly retreat, with rearguard actions to give time to prepare defences, wherever the terrain was suitable, they clung desperately to fortified places on the Atlantic Wall, from St. Nazaire through Brest to Le Havre and the Channel ports. To capture these places one by one called for a considerable Allied effort and diversion of strength, and took much valuable time, Dunkirk remaining in enemy hands. The Allies were thus delayed throughout September without any good usable ocean port except Cherbourg. This delay enabled the Germans to man their last defensive line-from the Rhine Delta to Switzerland, and hold it. Barriers West and East. The prospect of a rapid decision in the West, with' the weather worsening, is not very'bright. The American First Army has pierced the old

Siegfried Line near Aachen, but is faced with the pill-box type of defensive belt which proved so effective in Normandy in similar wooded country. The American Third and Seventh Armies, with the French forces, are engaged in 'Lorraine and the Vosges country all the way to Belfort in hard fighting in bad weather against many natural obstacles as well as stiff enemy resistance. The British Second Army in the Rhine Delta is busy consolidating its salient, with the Meuse on the left flank, and the Canadians and Poles slowly forging ahead on their right flank to widen the base of the salient in southern Holland. The flooding of Walcheren island should hasten the opening of the Scheldt, with access to Antwerp. The Germans are likely to pull out their remaining troops in this area to the northern side of the Rhine Delta. More Open in South. Short of a sudden collapse of German resistance in the west, which, of course, may come, as it did in 1918, without • much preliminary . warning, the Western Front outlook is not too favourable. It is better in Italy, though here there is much to do before Kesselring can be forced back from the Apennines to the Po, and the weather here also is bad. On the Eastern Front the Russians are still round, but not inside Riga, and there are no signs of a break-through further south into East Prussia or across the Vistula at Warsaw, or north of it. This leaves the Southern Front, from the Carpathians round to the east of Hungary into the Danube Valley. Here there is still room for movement and manoeuvre, and opportunities are being exploited. The Russians, with the help of Rumanian and Tito's Yugoslav forces, hold a contracting ring from the Carpathian Passes, south of Przemysl, Drobobycz, and Stryj, through Transylvania to south of the Danube near Nish. The whole of the eastern Balkans is held by the Russians down to the • Aegean in Greek Thrace. The Germans are pulling out of Greece as fast as they can, and have already left the Peloponnese (Morea), the mainland peninsula south of the Corinth Isthmus. They are reported to be abandoning the Aegean Islands ; and some, including Kythera, off Cape Matapan, have been occupied by British forces landed to help the patriots, There are still Germans in Rhodes and Crete, the outlying bastions of the Axis Mediterranean Empire, but they are not staying to fight, only waiting to go. Balkan Operations. The British have also landed in Al bania, no doubt with a view to the liberation of northern Greece, possiblj including Salonika, towards which the Russians also may be moving froir the east and north. Whether Allied Balkan operations are "according tc plan" is not quite clear. What is cleai is that from this direction in the northern Balkans and the Danube Valley the best opportunity is presented tc the whole United Nations forces o: dealing a deadly blow at Hitler's Fortress Europe and ending the war, per haps, this year. The only outlet of escape for th< Germans in Greece and the Aegeai Islands is through Salonika, the Var dar Valley, and the Moravia trough vij Skoplije. Nish, and Belgrade. Th< northern end near Belgrade must al ready have been practically closed b: the Russians and Yugoslavs. Frori Albania the British could- deal witl the region between Skoplije ■ anc Salonika, moving along the routi taken by the Germans in the invasioi of Greece in April, 1941. The crus of defence in all this region, especi ally in the Danube Valley* i s nowhen nearly so formidable as it is on thi Eastern and Western Fronts. The gate ways into Germany are many and no easily defended, and. the population on the way are mostly against the Nazis Hence this avenue of approach offer at the moment-the best chance of , quick>^£aii^jtofe.4iheg;-wafe:iai^Suropeii