INVASION HOUR NEARER

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXIII, Issue 236, 3 September 1943, Page 5

INVASION HOUR NEARER

ALLIED ARMADAS PREPARING (N.Z. Press Association.—Copyright.) ;(Rec. 9.15 a.m.) LONDON, Sept. 2. It is reported from La Linea (Spain) that a great Allied invasion armada is standing by at Gibraltar. The British naval force consists of four aircraft-carriers, two battleships, three' cruisers, and 20 destroyers, also three troop transports and 45 merchantmen. Large formations of airborne troops -and many ships are being massed in Southern England for an invasion of Europe, says the German News Agency. "The British have made preparations on a considerable scale, but Germany has countered these moves by an appropriate regrouping of her forces and the strengthening of the garrisons on her Atlantic Walls." The News Agency also refers to the danger of Allied attacks against Southern France, Greece and in the Adriatic.

The Berlin radio said yesterday; that strong German reserves had been withdrawn from Russia to defend .Western and Southern Europe. The Paris radio's political commentator to-day declared: "The moment is approaching when the British and American invasion armada will cross the Channel and disembark armies on the French coast. Two gigantic armies will soon come to grips on French soil. Frenchmen will see far more vicious battles than anything experienced in 1940. The Allied air attacks against French towns are only a foretaste of things to come" The Evening Standard says that in Russia Hitler is faced with the most resounding defeat in military history.

The paper adds: Tin's is the cardinal moment of the war. Russia's demand for a second front cannot be obscured by speculation's about third, fourth, and fifth fronts. The term "second front" refers to the necessity for compelling the Germans to fight on two major fronts in Europe, not, as some illiterates seem to suppose? the number of fronts on which the Allies fight. Russia's demand is for a second front against tho Germans at a point where the Germans would be obliged to withdraw 50 divisions from Russia. It is a demand for a diversionary movement on the scale large enough to ensure that the possibility of the final defeat of Hitler in the east can b'e translated into positive achievement.