GERMANY'S DEFEAT

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 24972, 15 August 1944, Page 5

GERMANY'S DEFEAT

COMMENTATOR'S VIEW POSSIBLE IN EIGHT WEEKS (Reed. 6.15 p.m ) LONDON. Aug. 14 The German Army could definitely be broken within the next eight weeks, says the noted military commentator Max Werner. He adds that after the collapse of the German Army the political, social and economic disintegration of Germany as an organised State would begin. '"We have reached the final stage of the war, when military operations of relatively brief duration, even of limited scope, can create radical changes," he states, "At this stage the pace of the war can be immensely accelerated, and it is possible to calculate the prerequisites of victory in terms of military power, in space and in time. "The defence of Germany today rests on three main areas—north-west of Paris, around Warsaw and in East Prussia. There are about one hundred German divisions in these areas; the rest of the German forces are cut off and dispersed. It is not necessary to smash every German division to win victory; it is sufficient to defeat these main German defensive concentrations.

"When they are broken, the German Army will collapse and Germany will be defenceless before the Allied armies. My time limit of eight weeks," he concludes, "is quite sufficient to see the breaking of these 100 divisions." The Washington correspondent of the Scripps-Howard Newspapers savs Germany will make a peace offer within GO days. Fie adds that the offer will be turned down, but, as in 1918, another and more panicky appeal will follow. "Now, as then," the correspondent says, "Germany must have peace at any cost. Hitler, of course, will have nothing to do with these offers. They will be made in spite of him, and he miy no longer be in a position to object."