STRATEGY OF ALLIES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXV, Issue 31, 5 January 1945, Page 5

STRATEGY OF ALLIES

QUESTIONS FOR SHAEF

GERMAN DRIVE'S SUCCESS (N.Z. Press Association.—Copyright.) (Special Correspondent.) (Itec. 12.30 p.m.) LONDON, Jan. 4. Why did von Rundstedt break through? Why did he fail in his attack? Are there going to be changes at Shaef? Were the Allies overconfident? Why should ■winter delay our forces ? Did von Rundstedt win the battle?

Those are some of the questions now being asked about the Western Front. Several are being made to answer them. It has long been admitted that' the Allies wore completely surprised by von Rundstedt's attack in the locality used by the Germans not only in 1940 but also in 1914. The Daily Express comiiientator (Mr Alan Moorehcad) discussing the queries savs that after the Normandy breakout General Eisenhower made two prodigious decisions, first* to take the field command himself,'and secondly to bring all his arrmies" up to the Rhine together? While the German line solidified the Allied armies toiled painfully up to the Rhine and Supreme Headquarters found itself conducting the battle from 150 miles away.

From the Mediterranean to the English Channel six aijmies were deployed and there was no real cutting edge anywhere. Soon individual commanders found that even if they did make a breach in the German line thev had no reinforcements on hand to' back it up and go through. Faced with this evenly, spread pressure, the German line was able to hold intact which was the state ol affairs by the end of November. It then became difficult for the Allies to get news out of Germany and follow the rear movements of the Wehrmacht while von Rundstedt, with Germans and German sympathiser's behind the Allied lines, round it easy to get information.' He marshalled the Sixth Panzer Army north of the Ardennes and discovered that green American troops had moved into the line in the First American Army. In the second week of December when there was no moon he took the Fifth Panzer Army from the line opposite Liege and slipped it quietlv clown opposite Luxembourg while the Sixth Panzer Army moved into the poistions vacated by the Fifth