The Gisborne Herald. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED “THE TIMES" GISBORNE, THURSDAY, FEB. 8, 1945. CRISIS IN GERMANY

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21632, 8 February 1945, Page 4

The Gisborne Herald. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED “THE TIMES" GISBORNE, THURSDAY, FEB. 8, 1945. CRISIS IN GERMANY

The facts behind what has happened and is happening in Germany are sun obscure. Perhaps they will remain obscure until the end of the war, when public records will again be available. We already know enough from hints in the cablegrams, however. to be certain that these events are of tremendous historical .importance. It is evident that the Nazi machine, in the operation of which Himmler has still greater power, lias tightened its grip on Germany. The people have been assured by the new Reich leader, as well as by Hitler himself, that there are no “innocents" among them; they are all “in the same boat.” That, of course, is quite in accord with the arguments which many Britons and Americans have been using against those of- their own countrymen who attempt to divide the Germans into two groups, the Nazis and the rest —presumably the bad and the good. Probably there is now a strong feeling that, for once, Hitler and Himmler are right; German innocents do not exist. That, at any rate, is a safe judgment to act upon when the time comes for the final accounting.

How long can- Germany last now? How long will it take the Allies to inflict those casualties on the German Army which must break its defensive power? How long will it take to wrest from the German Army the strategic positions vital to German defence? If these strategic positions are the Oder, the Siegfried Line and the Rhine, then the Russians at the moment are the gravest menace to the Reich: But with the Wehrmacht being battered back through segments of the Siegfried Line by Allied units which by no means represent a fullscale offensive, enemy military commentators are making no secret of their apprehension regarding General Eisenhower’s plans. They know that the Allies are massing a huge striking force in the west and 1 they know that as soon as the conditions are favourable our air forces, at present engaged in disrupting communications and softening objectives directly in the path of the Russians, will be able to lend shattering aid to our land troops. If the Allied offensive which is thought to be imminent (something big is now developing on the Third Army front) assumes the proportions of a major break-through as die western counter-part of the Soviet assaults, the end of organised Wehrmacht resistance may be in sight. Certain it is that the German Army will never be able to stand up Jong to attacks in a war of movement; the shortage of oil would be a fatal handicap.

One Interesting message from a Swiss source recently stated that extensive preparations had been made to convert the whole of Berchtesgaden into a stronghold where staunch Nazis expected to keep fighting after the war. If a dramatic climax of this kind actually eventuated, it might suit the Allies quite well. Compensation for further military problems would very likely be supplied by the decision of the most fanatical of the Nazis to congregate thus and have their fate settled for them by means other than protracted criminal trials.