ALLIES’ PROGRESS

Greymouth Evening Star, 22 September 1943, Page 5

ALLIES’ PROGRESS

MR. CHURCHILL’S REVIEW

FAILURE OF U-BOATS

RUGBY. September 21. Loud and prolonged cheers greeted Mr Churchill’s entrance to the House of Commons. He said: “The new front in the Mediterranean was always intended as an essential preliminary to a main attack against Germany and' her satellites. A decision going beyond the occupation of North Africa was taken eighteen months ago. But there almost immediately came the Tobruk disaster, and the German advance in Russia. Following the El Alamein battle almost a year ago, we and our Allies have had almost unbroken successes on land, sea and air.”

Mr. Churchill,, continuing, said: “Last May, Mr. Roosevelt, and myself set ourselves the principal objective of knocking Italy completely from the war this year. Nobody could have expected that task to be so rapidly achieved. The weight of bombs discharged over Germany by the R.A.F. in the last three months was half as great again as in the preceding three months. The percentage of losses were lower this year than last. The enemy has been forced to make an enormous diversion of energy from the war fronts. The increase in aircraft available now exceeds the corresponding German supply by more than four to one. This opens the possibility of saturating the German defences on the ground and in the air. The complete strategic air domination of Germany by the British and Americans is not necessarily beyond our reach even in 1944. The Russian Air Force is already at many points superior to the strength that the Germans have been able to assemble. We must not let this favourable tendency lead us to suppose the war is coming to an end. On the contrary we must expect the terrible foe we are smiting so heavily will make frenzied efforts to retaliate. 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 in September. This, is altogether unprecedented in the whole history of U-boat warfare, in either 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, 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 have been coming out in the last week or so from bases in France and Germany. A convoy is being attacked as I speak. The new building exceeds the losses since the outbreak by more than 6.000,000 tons. Should this continue, we will soon replace all losses suffered by the United Nations since the outbreak. We can be defeated by U-boats, only if we are guilty of gross neglect in shipyards and on the sea, and it the technical ability on both sides of the Atlantic inexcusably falls off. Even at the worst times we never trenched upon the substantial margin between us and what is called the danger level. ” “Al. Quebec, much _ attention was given to the prosecution ol the wai against Japan. The main weight is at present in the Solomons and New Guinea, where General MacArthur, an officer of outstanding personality, is directing the large scale offensive. These operations will unfold stage bv stage, as months pass. Japans shinpinc and plane losses certainly exceed their capacity for replacement. Lord Mountbatten will shortly'reach India with combined staffs, conforming to the model established by General Eisenhower. The headquarters will be at New Delhi. Mr. Churchill said toe Soviet, aftei studying the terms of the Italian armistice, authorised General Eisenhower to sign its name. The House adjourned at lunch.

ACTION IN ITALY CAUSE OF DELAY. RUG BY, September 21. V'After Mussolini fell the Badoglio Government intended to, make peace according to the will of the nation, but were influenced and overlorded by the Germans, and had the greatest difficulty in maintaining themselves, Mr Churchill said. "Desiring to. bring about the surrender of Italy in the shortest time and at the least possible cost, of lives, the Allies had to wait until the position became definite. We were sympathetic about their difficulties, but insisted the surrender must be unconditional. In the negotiations the Allies could not reveal their plans of invasion, and the real difficulty was the Italians were powerless until the Allies landed in strength. We offered and were prepared to land American airborne divisions at Rome at the same time as an armistice was declared, and to fight off two German armoured divisions which were outside, 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 believe that Mussolini was being kept under strong guard in a secure place. The Badoglio Government did their best, but did not provide for a heavy parachutist descent. The suggestion that forty days precious time was lost negotiating was as ill-founded as it was wounding to those who were bereaved. The whole operation was planned as the result of decisions taken on the fall of Mussolini, and would have taken place whatever happened in Italy, at the earliest possible moment. The surrender was a windfall, but had nothing to do with the date lor harvesting the orchard. The Italians had already suffered terribly, and now they were to bo pillaged and terrorised in Hitler’s fury and revenge, In due curse, they would be rescued from servitude and degradation and enabled to regain that rightful place among the free democraices of the modern world.

“If asked whether he would apply this argument to the Germans. he would say the case was different. We did not war with races as such, but against tyranny and to preserve ourselves from destruction. Nazi tyranny and Prussian militarism must be rooted out if the world was to be spared a still more frightful conflict. Until this was done, there would be no sacrifice we would not make, and no lengths in violence to which we would not go. Having at the end of my life acquired some influence upon affairs. I wish to make it clear that I would not prolong the war needlessly a single day, and it is my hope,, if and when the British people are called by victory to share in the august responsibility of shaping the future, we shall show the same poise of temper as. we did in the hour of mortal peril." GERMAN CONFIRMATION (Rec. 11.20 a.m.) LONDON, Sept. 21. The German home and overseas radios started sending out high-light summaries of Mr Churchill’s speech while he was still speaking. The Berlin radio declared: "Competent military circles in Berlin confirm Mr Churchill’s statement that not a single Allied merchantman has been sunk in the North . Atlantic in ■ the past four months.”