WEST OFFENSIVE

Hokitika Guardian, 26 September 1939, Page 2

WEST OFFENSIVE

WHERE WILL THE STRIKE BE? How —and where —can Britain and France strike at Germany? A real offensive has not yet been launched on the Western Front. Across the Saar Valley the opposing lines of fortification—the Maginot Line and .the Siegfried Line —are 40 miles apart. Between them is a vast No Man’s Land—German territory, now' attacked by the French, but stretching 40 miles in front of the German line of defence. The French advance out into this vast No Man’s Land of the Saar Valley will have some “nuisance value.” The fact that French forces have entered German territory may provoke the Germans to counter-attack them. There may be intense battles out there between the two great opposing defensive lines.

The Germans may be induced —reports suggest that they have already, been induced—to transfer troops from Poland to fight in that wide No Man's I,and on the Western Front. But can the war be won or lost in any battle there between the lines? No. Only a successful attack on the Siegfried Line itself could give victory to the Allies on the Franco-German frontier. The whole length of the Western Front on which any major offensive nld be launched is only about 80 miles —from the banks of the Moselle to the point (opposite Karlsruhe) where the Maginot defences meet the Rhine. To the left of that stretch of front are Luxemburg and Belgium ; and on the right of it, down to the Swiss border, the line runs along the River Rhine through mountainous (country where no large-scale offensive is possible. There are then, only 80 miles of “effective” front. And there stand the two strongest sectors of those two greaf lines of fortification, Maginot facing Siegfried, 40 miles apart. Will this be the area in which either of the opposing armies will engage in a mighty conflict, hurling masses of men against the Maginot and Siegfried Line? . To overwhelm a strong defensive line it is estimated that, in men and guns, the attacking force must be, to the defenders, at least eight to one. If this is so, the Franco-German frontier cannot be the decisive theatre of the present war. Where, then, will France and Britain strike? The “fog of war” has descended' on Europe. Somewhere in the fog, we may surmise, preparations are being made to deliver a blow at Germany. We can only guess whore it may he aimed. As far back as 1912 the British Admiralty produced two plans for landing a British army on the German coast.

Since 1918 it has been disclosed that this was the Navy’s pre-war alternative to the military plan, the one oven-, tually adopted, of landing an expeditionary force in France. Perhaps the old Admiralty plan has been revived. Alternatively, practicability of sending reinforcements to Poland —of aircraft at least—must have been considered by the Allies since the signing ot the Russo-German Pact. Whatever the nature of the blow which Britain and France ard preparing, we can be certain that it will depend very largely on the factor of surprise. , It is not impossible, even, that the surprise will be effected on the Western Front itself. Blit let us not hope for miracles. We have been warned to prepare for a long war, even after a way of “getting at” Germany has been decided up-