GERMANY'S TRAGEDY HAS BEEN OUR SALVATION

New Zealand Herald, Volume 80, Issue 24775, 24 December 1943, Page 2

GERMANY'S TRAGEDY HAS BEEN OUR SALVATION

THE dawn of this year's Christmas brings both rejoicing and thankfulness —but it should be thankfulness above all. The British Empire has been truly blessed by the hand of Providence stretched forth against 'Hitler almost as he seemed to clutch one or other of his greatest prizes. Germany's tragedy of the near-miss has been our salvation. No matter how sweeping his triumphs, always some supreme object has eluded Hitler, whether it was the British Army on the beaches of Dunkirk, the Motherland itself, the ancient city of Moscow, or Alexandria and Cairo at the gateway to the East. The Kaiser knew similar misfortunes beginning with von Kluck's failure to take Paris. Hitler has won conquests beyond the i Kaiser's powers ; the Austrian s . failures are all the more striking. > The German General Staff rightly prides itself on the exactness of its planning and its readiness to profit

from paat mistakes. Prussian diplomacy in 1914 made the fatal blunder of fighting simultaneously France and Kussia. Moltke stultified the Schlieffen Plan by despatching two army corps to the Russian front. No such errors were committed in 1939 and 1940. The pact with the Soviet permitted the terrific onslaught through the Low Countries against France, which Schlieffen had rightly claimed would bring victory, absolute and overwhelming- , But Hitler has n6 mortgage on the future. Like the criminal who studies the mistakes of his predecessors in evil, he finds with all his care the pattern of the perfect crime eluding him. Mistakes are still Waiting round the corner. Hitler's intuition, his strategic gifts, his extraordinary sense of timing and his devilish cunning in paralysing nations through the destruction of their unity and morale —these undeniable attributes are still far short of infallibility and have but Berved to bring him closer to the cup of world conquest only to see it dashed from his lips. The moment when Hitler was closest to the mastery of the world was un-

doubtedly when the British Expeditionary Force was clustered on the beaches of Dunkirk and the Nazi mechanised divisions were sweeping through France. Hitler should not survive to write his memoirs. But it is to be honed that for the sake of history he will have left some record as frank as Mein Kampf of the motives persuading him to drive toward Paris rather than concentrate on the annihilation of those devoted divisions upon whose rescue the fate of Britain so largely depended. The megalomaniac got the better of Hitler the strategist. The desire to strut before the tomb of Napoleon, to see the Nazi jackboots tramp beneath the Arc de Triomphe and the passion of the actor to put the French through

By L. K. MUNRO

llie agony at Compiegne—these were the lures which persuaded Hitler that the destruction of Britain could wait, for it was sure. It may well be that he never anticipated so swift and sudden a collapse in France. As Captain Liddell Hart has very truly said, successful war-leaders are sometimes as much, surprised by the extent of their own success as those they take by surprise and their subsequent account of it is not historical evidence. Hitler could be sure as his troops rushed on that France was his. Let Britain wait. But Hitler never dared the Channel crossing. Both Napoleon and he were prepared to undertake colossal adventures by land, as their invasions ol Russia amply prove. Yet Hitler, well knowing that England was almost defenceless, and that his air f(jrce would have made the Channel untenable for the bulk of the British Fleet, did not" attempt the which alone could give him victory. For with Britain in his grasp, the United States and Russia could hardly have survived. It is right and fitting that a chapel in Westminster Abbey should be dedicated to "the few" who did so much at that fateful time so that the free nations might survive. Reverse in Russia Once again, about a year after the Battle of Britain, destiny had a tryst with Hitler. liis troops were now in Russia and he dreamt of sleeping in the Kremlin. Could he gain Moscow Russia might fall. She had suffered enormous losses and the fall of the city which seemed her very heart, might have meant too much for one reeling from the blows of the German colossus. It was October 15. The Germans, a Russian captain told Quentin Reynolds, had taken Mozhaisk and a clear, undefended road lay to Moscow. The diplomatic corps were made to leave the capital for Kuibyshev. The very night they left the Nazis were expected to enter the Kremlin. Why did the German tanks fail to thunder along that empty road into the great city? It was "unlike the Nazis to fail to grasp at such an opportunity. In France they scarcely stopped. Perhaps, said the Russian captain, they suspected a trap. At night the snow fell

heavily and this may have influenced the mind of a German commander who did not know that destiny was in his hands. The next day was too late. Reinforcements were rushed up and once again the Germans suffered the tragedy of the near-miss. The older generation of Russians was deeply religious. They may well have seen the hand of God strewing the countryside of Moscow with snow on that fateful night. The scene now moves to the desert. It is a year again after Moscow has been saved. Hitler has reached the Volga, his armies threaten the Caucasus, but Stalingrad, and the oil-wells of Baku are to elude his grasp. He is to be foiled again. But in the desert, away from these accursed snows which gnaw at the bones of his Nazis, Hitler sees victory in the heat of the Egyptian sun. Rommel's Threat The Eighth Army has been hurled back to 101 Alamein. The divisons standing between Rommel and Alexandria are weary and pitifully few. if the Canal can be taken, the life-line of the Empire will be cut, way will be found to the Indian Ocean, and junction can be made with the Japanese, whose recipe for victory seemed to Hitler even better than his own.

The ancient land of Egypt has many monuments which have watched the movements of conquerors since the dawn of history. The Sphinx, as Kingslake tells, has watched and watched like a Providence with the same earnest eyes and the same tranquil mien everlasting upon Greek and Roman, upon Arab and Ottoman conquerors, upon Napoleon dreaming of an Eastern Fmpire. and but last year, as Kinglakc could not foretell, upon the general of an Austrian paperhangcr clutching at world dominion. This small Dominion should never boast. Hut it is not boasting to record that under the mercy of God troops from New Zealand played a major part in changing the course ol history by turning aside the final thrust of Rommel toward Alexandria. Hitler had lost again. In no exultant mood, for much remains to lie done, we may say with the prophet: "At eventide behold terror; and before the morning they are not. This is the portion of them that spoil us and the lot of them that rob us."