Manawatu Evening Standard WEDNESDAY, JAN. 12, 1944. THREE-DIMENSIONAL WAR

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXIV, Issue 37, 12 January 1944, Page 4

Manawatu Evening Standard WEDNESDAY, JAN. 12, 1944. THREE-DIMENSIONAL WAR

The present war differs in many respects from its predecessor of 1914-18 and its successful conduct calls for plans and methods which have had to be fashioned mainly in the light of experience since it began in 1939. The Germans decided that it would be a total war, and not only a struggle between armed forces. A strain on financial, economic, and human resources far greater than ever before has been caused, and sacrifices upon people far removed from the battle areas are being enforced. Whereas in the past wars have been two-dimensional in character, the extensive use of aircraft as weapons of destruction has brought changes of vital importance, and problems for military leaders that are not easily solved. Bitter experience in Wesiern Europe, in Greece, and in Crete brought home to the United Nations the lesson that land power and naval superiority were not in themselves sufficient weapons to achieve victory; the third factor —air power —was essential. More recent experience has shown that air supremacy, which the Allies have achieved, cannot bring final victory unless and until it is used in full cooperation with land and sea power. The Germans thought they could force Britain to her knees by shattering blows from the air and by _ reducing large areas of great cities to heaps of ruins. Their plan failed. The Allies have used their air power against Germany with the object of reducing the enemy's war production, but they know that invasion of Europe must be undertaken to reach final victory. In selecting commanders for the tremendous task of invading Europe and carrying land operations on to German soil, the Allies have attached great importance to the question of cooperation between the three branches of the war machine. Mr. Morley Richards,' the wellknown military writer, wa» quoted in a 'cable on Monday as stating that General Montgomery is engaged in getting his group of British armies ready for the invasion of Western Europe, while' "invasion headquarters in London await the arrival of the Supreme Commander (General Eisenhower) whose task it is to interlock all the invasion fleets, armies, and air forces." General Montgomery has proved his masterly power to co-ordinate land and air forces and at no time sin.ce El Alamein has he fought a land battle till the air battle has been won.- He adopts the principle that the army and air force must be so knitted that they form one entity. When the great attack on Hitler's European fortress is launched there will be the closest co-owvation between land, sea, and air in the three-dimensional _ blows that will be delivered with unprecedented force to open what is designed to be the final phase of the deliverance of Europe and the world from Nazi tyranny.