FORTRESS EUROPE

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 24850, 23 March 1944, Page 3

FORTRESS EUROPE

ENTKANCE BY HUNGARY

GERMANS SEIZE THE GATES

!!V OUII MII.ITAHY CORRESPONDENT

Germany's occupation of Hungary should be considered in relation to her ideas of the southern and south-eastern bastions of Fortress Furope, inside which she may curl up like a hedgehog when the United Nations develop their oflensives. It is an enlargement of < r i plan suggested by General C. A. M. Hodman, one of their best stall officers in the war of 1914-18.

In Italy the Apennines form the outer barrier to the main line of defence of the Alps The Adriatic Sea is to provide an outpost system for the line of the Dinarie Alps of Yugoslavia. From hero the line passes through Saloniea to the Rhodope Alps of Bulgaria, backed by the Balkans range proper, with Greece and the Aegean Sea providing a forward system. The fortress makes use of the flood regions of the Lower Danube and particularly of the delta Odessa, with its protective lakes, and the Dniester have the role of outer protective works to a system which includes the Rivers Pruth and Sereth in Bessarabia and .Moldavia and the Transylvanian Alps and the Carpathians, which comprise a continuous chain of mountains. The curling up, hedgehog fashion, is to be done within t lie mountain barriers from which ioravs will be made as opportunity oilers. 1

Outposts in the Plains This war has confirmed the lessons of history that rivers are an over rated obstacle. The truth is that mosi rivers provide more problems for tlx defence than 'for the attacker. ()nc< they are (irmly established across tht. Dniester, the Russians should find in Bessarabia country well suited to movements on broad fronts. As it has beet the subject of long-standing dispute between Russia and Rumania, it is poorly developed and badly roaded, but the ground generally is firmer than on the other side of the Dniester. It has been one of the objects of the Russians to reach this more solid country before the spring thaws and, equally, FieldMarshal Mannstein's task td prevent them. The River Pruth, a tributary of the Danube, which it joins near the delta port of Galati, is navigable for a considerable distance, and divides Bessarabia and Moldavia. The latter province is also flat to rolling like its neighbour. The River Sereth rolls past the foothills of the Carpathians from the Bukovina in the north to the Danube at Braila. Between the Pruth and the Sereth there is a main highway, but the principal road from Bucharest, the capital of Rumania, to Cernauti, near the Polish frontier, runs behind the Sereth. Here also is the main railway line. The branch railways running eastward are only fair and were not designed to carry largo volumes, of traffic.

Fight for the Oilfields Key centres in the region are Cernauti and the railway junctions of Haiti, lasi (also known as J assy), Tiraspol on the Dniester, and Galati. in addition, of course, to Rumania's capital and the oilfields of Ploesti. Expectations must be that the Germans will do their utmost to protect this southern region of Rumania. The Southern Carpathians and the Transylvanian Alps enclose the great Transylvanian plateau, possession of which has been keenly contested by Hungary and Rumania. On the fiumanian side the heights fall steeply to wooded foothills, but on the west the slopes are easier to the plateau. The chief peaks are from 7000 to 8000 feet in height and the passes are for the most part deep winding ravines. There is a similarity in height and in the passes to the Apennines of Italy, and both systems have rugged and smooth features.

Access by Northern Passes Should Marshal Zhukov strike south from his present positions about Proskurov, he will have to overcome some difficult country created by the Dniester and the Pruth and low ridges before he reaches Cernauti. The Russians paid dearly for enterprises in this region in the last war, but they succeeded in forcing the passes. Here where the Northern and Southern Carpathians join, the mountain chain is only about (if) miles wide against the average elsewhere of 180 miles The great Hun-

garian plain runs into the heart of the i highlands and there are a number of | comparatively easy passes connecting; the headwaters of the Dniester and the Pruth with that of (lie Tisza, which j traverses the plain. Four of these passes i have railways. An advance through ; this region would bring the Russians on j to the plains and so to Budapest, capi- j tal of Hungary. From the Bukovina. which would fall with the taking of Cernauti. there are four passes into Hungary, the Kirlihaba. Borgo. Tolgyes and the Bekas. None of these i>, served bv rail,

although rail communications are handy on both sides of the mountains. Further

south the Gyimes Pass carries both r railway and road which, should Ccr nauti fall, would become a vital linli in .Mannstein's supply system.

Campaigns of the Last War

i Oito7, Pass is about 4o miles south of Gyimes and is served, hut not traversed, by a railway on the Hungarian side of the mountains. The Buzue, or Bod/.0, Pass and the Brntoeea have good road connections with Brasov. The Tomos, or Predal Pass, lias both road and rail connection with .Bucharest. Ploesti and Brasov. Further westward is the road pass of Tor/,burg, also leading to Brasov, and next is the Rotherum Pass carrying both road and rails. Vulkan Pass has a road only, but there are railway termini oil both sides of the Alps. Finally, there are the Iron Gates on the Danube. When Rumania entered the war in 1016 she attacked Hungary through all the , passes named. Falkenhayn's counter-offensive cleared the passes on the Carpathian front and he forced bis j way into Rumania by those in the I Alps. For those operations be had the use of the strategic railways built by Austria within the mountain enclosure, a system which exists to-day. The railway communications on the Rumanian side are not the best for lateral movements. JUNGLE UNIFORMS AUSTRALIAN IMPROVEMENTS; MELBOURNE, March l(i j "Fquipment issued to Australian jungle lighters in New Guinea is equal to the world's best, and we intend to keep it that way," the .Minister for the Army, Mr. F. M Fordo, stated when announcing that further improvements in Australian jungle fight era' clothing would lie made. "Samples of a new tvpe of web anklet embodying the best features of the Australian and American anklets at present in use have been prepared for trial. The anklets protect the bottom of the leg against mosquitoes and scrub mites, and prevent the boot filling up with mud and gravel," said Mr Fordo. "Trousers with self-supporting tops, with more room in the seat and legs, and an additional thigh pocket, are also planned. Special boots for J troops working on watereral't and \ docks are considered necessary, ami n I rope-soled boot is bciue tested General 1 issue boots for jungle fighters have re- | ceiitly been improved, and are now j considered satisfactory.

"Suggestions for a better ventilated hat with a high crown are being conaider ed."