Greymouth Evening Star. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1943. NOT ACCORDING TO PLAN.

Greymouth Evening Star, 19 November 1943, Page 4

Greymouth Evening Star. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1943. NOT ACCORDING TO PLAN.

r J'HE latest news from the war-fronts is not. welcome, telling, as it does, of a British defeat at Leros, a Russian reverse at Jilomir, and a hold-up of the Allied advance in Italy. As customary the setbacks are claimed to be of no real military importance, but that estimate is a matter of degree. In so vast a. campaign as the global war, these checks may be comparative incidents, but the}’ prove that the Germans are far from defeated, and that some of the predictions from Allied commentators were too optimistic. Before Berlin and Tokio are occupied, it will be miraculous if occasional “bad patches” do not have to be recorded concerning the Allies’ offensive. These reverses should be viewed with regret more than anxiety, with main sympathies for the Allied men who fall victims to the misfortunes of war.

The Allies in Russia and Italy made such remarkable progress that continuous victories had become almost a daily expectation. The Red Army has achieved great things of late, and is unlikely to surrender much of what it has won. Hitler had to make some desperate effort to check the Russian progress, and his temporary success near Jitomir does not mean (hat he will be able to stage a major comeback. Tn Italy, the Germans and the weather have succeeded in halting the Allies’ advance, but it is a check and not a stalemate. The Dodecanese developments suggest that a. gamble was made that did not come off. The enemy proved stronger than estimated, and visions of early invasion of the Balkans remain as such. It is not surprising that a chorus of criticism of the strategy and tactics in the Dodecanese and Italy is growing in London and Washington. There is certainly scope for explanation. When Churchill-Roosevelt meetings take place, the respective retinues of Service chiefs and advisers also confer, and the whole world is told, that they reach unanimity of agreement as to how, when and where the enemy is to be overwhelmed. The armaments production, shipping facilities, aircraft, and numbers of troops in training are declared to be stupendous. All this is very satisfactory and encouraging, but the actual results, good as they are, have not fulfilled expectations of the man-in-the-street. The Allies have huge Forces all over the world, and month follows month, with little that is decisive happening. Doubtless, there arc good reasons for this apparent inactivity. The story is being retold of what President Lincoln wrote during the Civil War, to General McClellan, then in command of the Union forces. He was conducting a waiting campaign; and, so careful was lie to avoid mistakes that little headway was evident. President Lincoln thereupon wrote : “My dear McClellan: If you don’t want to use the army, I should like to borrow it for a while. Yours respectfully, A. Lincoln.” In this year of grace, many are the predictions of what is going to be done. The expectations thus created must be as balm to the impatient, or to any who may be wondering if all is well with the conduct of the Allies’ campaign. Out of the evil of the Leros reverse may come good if the unpleasantness leads to a lessening of complacency in high and low places.