OFFENSIVE PLANS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXII, Issue 257, 29 September 1942, Page 2

OFFENSIVE PLANS

ALLIED PREPARATIONS. (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright.) (Rec. 11.40 a.m.) OTTAWA, Sept. 28. “The Allied leaders do not need prodding to open a second front,’’ said Mr Attlee, Deputy-Prime Ministe* of Great Britain. “It is unnecessary to prod them because you i*u take it for certain that we are all working on plans for an offensive. A second front has become something of a catch phrase but the Battle of the Atlantic, large air raids on Germany, and the fighting in the Middle East and elsewhere all have to be considered.

All the fighting being done by the Allies is part of a second front, and the fighting on all fronts affects it. Most people are agreed that nothing could be said in advance about a second front.’’

Criticising Mr Wendell Willkie’s statement that perhaps some military lenders need public prodding to open a second front, the New York World Telegram in an editorial said: “There is a doubt if any public figure, since the outbreak of the war, has uttered a statement so ill-advised or has advocated a course so weighted with danger and possible disaster. Not only every military commander but Mr Churchill and Mr Roosevelt have made crystal clear their eagerness and determination to open a second front at tho earliest hour compatible with the possibility of military success. To move sooner would be to condemn thousands of British and American soldiers to a purposeless slaughter and such an ill-timed move might even mean the loss of the war. We do not question Mr Willkie’s good intentions, but the depth and clarity of his thinking. His several expressions on military subjects while on tour bordered on sophormoric. Applause and flashbulbs have apparently caused Air Willkic to talk out of his turn. This is no time for innocents abroad.”

THE RUSSIAN VIEWPOINT. The Moscow radio commentator, replying to those who think it will be too dangerous to open a second front in Europe, has now stated that some say that the lesson of the Dieppe raid was that the landing operations were very costly and some would not mind cancelling the war because it was so dangerous and difficult. The seamen who brought munitions to the Red Army were not frightened away because of tlie Fascist fire awaiting them and they did not wait until next spring. It was impossible to boat Germany by bombing alone. A real second front was needed in Europe rnd the important thing was to open it now. The Russians’ defeat would mean tho defeat of Britain and America.