Posers For Germans

Northern Advocate, 26 July 1943, Page 3

Posers For Germans

(Special) LONDON, July 25. “The Germans have very difficult questions to answer,” says the “Sunday Times.” “Shall they let Italy go, or hoiw long can they afford to prop her?” These questions are complicated for Hitler by his parallel commitments in the Balkans. He cannot let these go because of the indispensable Rumanian oil. In two ways Allies’ conquest of Sicily makes the Balkans more vulnerable. It completes security of our supply line. It is a step to Southern Italy, and airfields in Apulia could provide fighter cover for landing on the Albanian coast. “Against this unmistakable threat, if it came, the Germans could stand up virtually alone. Could they find armies and aircraft to so do if, at. the same time, they had to resist the Russians on a 1000-mile front, hold the direct Allied advance through Italy and meet the still more direct threat of invasion from the west coast of Europe? The answer must surely be ‘No.’ With their dwindling resources they cannot meet all these calls together. They will, before long, have to do something to shorten their lines and lighten their burdens.

“Somewhere a policy of withdrawal must be devised. A conceivable plan would be the partial withdrawal both in the Balkans and Italian Peninsulas Without entireJy abandoning either. In Northern Greece they might hold the line from Mt. Olympus to Argyrokastro. In Italy a possible line is resting in the Northern Apennines, covering Po Valley. The hardest point about either is the opening it would create for Allied aircraft and bombers flying from bases in Tuscany or The Marches, iwhich would give ready ac-* cess to just those parts in Germany which at present are least accessible to us. Bombers based on Thesally could regularly attack Rumanian oilfields and refineries. The new scope afforded Allied aviation would appear almost overwhelming. “The general character of the situation is determined by German shortages. . Most important of those within our ken is aircraft. A special twist is given by the Russian advance. If it begins now there is no nope of stopping it when winter comes. On the contrary, winter would quicken it and what shall it profit the Germans to hold back British and Americans in Italy or Greece if, in the interval, the Russians overrun Berlin?”