HIGH MORALE

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 25048, 11 November 1944, Page 7

HIGH MORALE

REVIVAL IN GEBMANY FIGHTING FOR HOMELAND (Special Correspondent) (Reed. 8.15 p.m.) LONDON, Nov. 10 "This is the moment for a new assessment of Germany's spiritual strength, for it has change tremendously in the last two months," says the Daily Mail's correspondent, Alexander Clifford, writing from the Dutch front. He says the change may be seen by the way the Germans fight, things that prisoners say, their letters to and from home, their newspapers and propaganda. "In easly September," says Mr Clifford, "their morale reached an all-time low. Now it is extremely high. Goebbels has almost never had an easier job. Fighting for Their Country "At last he is down to something real, true and genuine. He no longer has to sell a phoney doctrine, because the Germans are fighting for something that we, too, admit is worth fighting for. They are fighting directly for their country. So Goebbels is keeping Hitler in the background. You hear very little about the Nazi Party. "All the emphasis is on the defence of the nation against the enemies who have sworn to destroy it and the most violent anti-Nazis now tend to say: 'Because I do not like the form of Government in my country is no reason why I should betray my country.' That is the main basis of this new spiritual strength which we should be mad not to recognise. Strength in Dark Days "There are many other factors which contribute to it. Defeat is nearly always a more profound experience than victory, and Germany is immediately facing defeat. Probably our own greatest spiritual strength was in 1940, when we were nearest to defeat. Now it is Germany's turn." Mr Clifford adds that the Germans are feeling more and more that they can expect no mercy from us. We demanded a blank cheque in the form of unconditional surrender, and the Germans are convinced that we shall fill in that cheque for the full amount. If they are ruined anyway, they feel they may as well fight on in the interests of their own self-respect and in the hope of a miracle. Arnhem a Victory Just as we had Dunkirk to inspire us in 1940, so the Germans had a whole series of feats of arms to inspire them. Arnhem was a brilliant victory to the Germans and all those suicidal garrisons in the Channel ports are material for heroic stories. The Germans think today of St Malo, Brest. Le Havre, Dunkirk, Breskens and Walcheren in the same way that we thought of Crete, Bir Hakeim, Tobruk, Malta and Dieppe. "German prisoners you meet today have forgotten about being herrenfolk," says Mr Clifford. "They have forgotten about the bombing of Warsaw, Rotterdam and Coventry, but they say that we have just destroyed the lovely cities of Bonn and Parma and today they can pose as the guardians of Europe and its art and culture against Anglo-Saxon vandals. "It adds np to an emotional feeling that ihev have their backs to the wall in a good cause. It may be a lost cause, but that does not necessarily make it a bad cause. "The German soldier suspects that Germany is scientifically well ahead of the Allies and that a final annihilating answer may be produced at any minute. And since that is the, only hope, it is u-orth clinging to it."

FAST FLIGHT TO INDIA MOSQUITO TAKES 14* HOURS LONDON. Nov. 9 A flight from England to India has boon made in just over 14.J hours, and British newspapers have been read in fndia the clav after their publication in London, These records have just been set up by an It.A. F, Transport Command Mosquito. The flying time, was 14h 37m. Tlio time with two stops for refuelling was 16h 46m. The crew was welcomed on arrival at Karachi by the station commander, Group-Captain Ramsbottom-Isherwood, the New Zealander who will be remembered for his command of the first British fighter wing in Russia. He was handed a parcel emphasising the significance of the fliglit—a selection of London and provincial morning newspapers of the previous day. The Mosquito was a normal service aircraft, designed not only for speed, but also capable of operating as day or night fighter, bomber or photographic reconnaissance aircraft. The journey to India was a routine flight to reinforce an operational squadron. WANTON DESTRUCTION LONDON, Nov. 0 The deputy-Prime Minister. Mr C. B. Attlee, replying to a question in the House of Commons, said that the whole world was shocked by# the wanton destruction and devastation wrought in Holland by the Germans. "As far as the British Government was concrned," he added, "all just claims for territorial compensation at the expense of Germany, which the Netherlands Government may eventually decide to put forward, will be energetically supported."