Time is Aliy or Enemy of Both Sides

Manawatu Times, Volume 69, Issue 205, 30 August 1944, Page 5

Time is Aliy or Enemy of Both Sides

(Special Correspondent.) Received Tuesday, 8.15 p.m. LONDON, Aug. 29. Rapid as has been the march of events and deep as has been the rejoicing at the liberating of Paris and the clearing out of the Germans from large areas of France, the chief question which is exercising the minds of the Allies is how quickly can Germany be finished off? Opinions differ between a longer and shorter period. “Never more than to-day, the Allies fight against time,” declares Lieut.General H. G. Martin in the Daily Telegraph. 4 4 The German High Command fights for time, time to restore the morale of its beaten armies, time for something or anything to turn up. Above all time to exploit South Holland as a base for its Vee-type weapons; from the Hook to London is not so very much farther than from the Pas de Calais.

4 4 Such is the German plan—a desperate plan based —if it is a basis—on faith in witchcraft. This plan, as the enemy himself foresees, the Allies can most surely counter by continuing without pause to turn his open, inner flank by a series of side enveloping movements which will keep the battle fluid. Indeed by establishing their bridgeheads over the Seine at the earliest possible moment, and no less by making a wide sweep through Troyes, the Allies have served notice on the enemy that they have no time to give away.”

General Martin expresses the opinion that the landslide in the Balkans has resulted in disasters mat must make an Allied ultimate victory doubly sure. He adds: “But to-day the Allies are not concerned with ultimate victory because they fight against time —to rid the world of a gang of criminal madmen before these madmen have time to work more evil.

General Martin thinks that for this purpose the Balkan landslide may work too slowly.” If the Wehrmacht can reach a vastly concentrated front of its choice—on the Meuse, on the Northern Italian Alps, and on the Vistula or even further back through the fortresses oi Breslau, Posen and Thom—its oil requirements for defence will so immensely be reduced that the loss ol Ploesti will cease to be decisive. At the same time, Rumania itself is something of a military dead end since the exits from it into Hungary, whether through the Transylvanian gorges or through the Danube gorges by the Iron Gate, are so difficult that demolitions alone could make them practically impassible. The enemy may still find men to bar these difficult approaches for a time. “No, it is rather in the west that the Allies may now win their quick decision. There, thanks to brilliant planning and no less bruliant execution, the grim fighting Allies have reduced the enemy s last concentration of eute troops— -the leaven of the whole mass—to a disordered remnant, exhausted and largely disarmed. “Now, therefore, it is primarily a question of logistics. Can the Allies overcome the friction of war and so maintain the momentum of their advance unchecked? If so, speedy victory is sure.” A similar point is made by Captain Cyril Falls in the Illustrated London News. 44 It must be realised that the inner defences of the European Fortress to which the Germans are now likely to withdraw will make smaller demands upon German manpower than the campaigns which hitherto have been waged. In other words the Germans are physically capable of prolonging the war considerably if they can muster moral strength for the purpose. These are matters notoriously difficult to estimate, but there can be no doubt that much depends on the extent to which the Allies in all theatres can keep up the pressure. “The Germans are tough, resilient people. They are not suffering from the food shortage which helped to weaken them in 1918. If they are given any opportunity to make a recovery they will certainly take it even now. It is, therefore, of the highest importance that they should be allowed no time to take breath. It does not seem likely that they will.” TOO LATE FOR GERMANS TO RECOVER The view taken by “Liberator” in the Observer is that the Germans’ hope of organising a home army to continue resistance even after the formal collapse is growing remote. “The Ic:jqs of their S.S. divisions in France has probably sapped this plan for ever. They are trying in vain to mobilise their last reserves for a stand on the frontier. If no delay intervenes the climax of the battle may now come in the west even while the Balkan front is breaking up and the Red Armies are preparing the final phase of their great offensive which contributed so much to th» success of the ‘Second Front.’ ” Events inside Germany may, of course, have an effect on a quicker ending and the Sunday Express’s diplomatic correspondent expresses the opinion that there is every reason to believe that the political trouble inside Germany itself has by no means ended. “It will cause no surprise if it again flames out in a week or two on an even more widespread scale.” He thinks economic and political developments will tip Germany “over the edge’’ and bring an end to the war sooner than appears possible on purely military calculations. One reason advanced is Rumania’s sudden exit. The Daily Express’s diplomatic correspondent differs from the view of Captain Falls on the food question in Germany and says it is believed that more political trouble is brewing in Germany possibly on account of the severe rationing of the civil population which has been ordered. He continues: “There is evidence that the German Government has staved off as long as possible the imposition of more severe rationing but the ‘total mobilisation’ of manpower, the shattering Allied air raids, and finally the loss of food supplies from Rumania and Bulgaria has forced the situation.” He adds that Germany must now live on homegrown foods. Her wartime rations- are already below Britain’s.