The Grey River Argus MONDAY, APRIL 2, 1945. WEHRMACHT COLLAPSE BEGINS.

Grey River Argus, 2 April 1945, Page 4

The Grey River Argus MONDAY, APRIL 2, 1945. WEHRMACHT COLLAPSE BEGINS.

As holes are being bored faster, wider and deeper in both the west and east European fronts by the much greater armies of the Allies, the German forces are now thinking more of saving than of risking their skins. This is only natural- when they obviously are losing cohesion and are out of touch with their High Command. Rumours that Hitler at a council of war discussed the question of seeking an armistice may be con-

jecture, but in view of the situation the conjecture is reasonable. The suggestion is that the Nazis do not wish to be jettisoned by the Army, and' expect to be able no doubt with Gestapo aid, to hold the home front in the event of a icessation of hostilities coming under discussion. Were the Army, to secure ail armistice, the Nazis might claim that they had not capitulated, but their situation is becoming such that no claim on their part is likely to be of more consequence in Germany than outside of the country. Last week with the Russians within 35 miles, it appeared, as General Eisenhower suggested, that they were the more likely to reach Berlin first, as the Allies were then ten times that distance away. To-day there is, however, only half that margin, or about 175 miles, between the most advanced Americans and Berlin. Still more remarkable is perhaps the fact that Americans are not much more than 100 miles from Czechoslovakia, and that the Russians now suggest an early link up of the Allied forces in that quarter. The 21st Army Group of Montgomery is spreading out into Holland and the North German plain, while the U.S. Ist. Army is linkihgn up with \them, east of the Ruhr, and the 3rd. Army has advanced over 160 miles into the | Reich. The Seventh Army has in the south begun also to line up in the advance, and the French Army is over the Rhine on a tea mile front. Only in patches are the Germans fighting with their former tenacity, and it is no wonder the people are guessing whether the war will go much beyond Easter. The collapse definitely has started, and if the Army is no longer proof against it, the Gestapo is unlikely to hold down the rest of the population very long.