Hardest Task Still Lies Ahead

Manawatu Times, Volume 68, Issue 215, 10 September 1943, Page 5

Hardest Task Still Lies Ahead

Germany Shows No Sip of Collapse

LONDON, Sept. 8. Striking a cautionary note, the Times’ diplomatic correspondent emphasises that full consideration of the implications of Italy’s collapse corrects any light-hearted assumptions that the whole enemy ship is sinking fast. All the Germans’ preparations inside and outside the Reich again prove the wisdom of Mr. Churchill’s repeated warnings that the hardest part of the war is yet ahead. The correspondent points out that there is a great difference between the Europe of to-day and 1918, when the Bulgarian eclipse on September 25 was the beginning of the rot. To-day both Germany and Occupied Europe are more closely knit, and for that reason it is safer to accept history only as a general i guide. The Times continues: "The German troops appear to have far more effective . control of Northern and Central Italy j than they had of tae Balkan countries towards the end of the last war. There are believed to be at present 18 or 19 German divisions in Italy. They are thickest in the north, but stretching to Rome. The military effects of the surrender may therefore be muffled in the north for some time, and from a strictly military point of view the capitulation might make little difference in these northern regions. We must still be prepared for hard fighting against the Germans in Italy. "More important, however, is the condition of Germany compared with the autumn of 1918. There were then many signs of impending collapse which are not apparent to-day despite the undoubted strain. Although the Allies are proving that no combination of military force or dictatorship can avert the consequences of aggression, it would be foolish to ignore the delaying effects of the discipline within Germany and the force of the appeal to people who are better fed than in 1918 that the Fatherland is endangered. The bulk of the available evidence goes to suggest even more clearly than in 1918 that Germany will first be defeated in the field. The Germans’ mobilisation is more complete and their war industries better, although the bombing is upsetting many of their plans hereanent. The bombing especially endangers the German plan of fighting a long defensive war within the inner European Fortress with fewer difficulties ol supply and transport and generally a tighter and more efficient economy than the Germans have found in the outer circle. Germany is strengthening her bulkheads behind some loose plates. The Germans also in another outstanding way have tried to counter the possibility of a collapse by reading the lessons of 1918. They have withdrawn their satellite armies as far as possible from the actual fighting. The Germans’ intention, according to the Frankfurter Zeitung, is to put her allies to work and her own soldiers to fight, thus hoping to avoid exposure on a wide front through defection. They thus reinforced not only Italy but the Balkans, where at present they have at least 20 divisions. Germany, moreover, since the beginning of the year has taken care to switch the allegiance of her satellites from the Tripartite Pact to Germany herself. Germany, after the fall of North Africa, appears to have written off Italy except those parts which she may be able to hold herself. “Such considerations certainly don’t minimise the Allies’ enormous gaina The Italian collapse, with the Russian advance and the Allied supremacy over the U-boats, brings resounding prool that victory is on the way. ’ ’