The New Zealand Herald AUCKLAND, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1944 LORRAINE OFFENSIVE

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 25050, 14 November 1944, Page 4

The New Zealand Herald AUCKLAND, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1944 LORRAINE OFFENSIVE

For the first titne in the history of war, with large armies dependent on regular supply services from the rear rather than on the magazines of other days, a major offensive has been launched in France in the winter. Moreover, it is an offensive in steep, wooded country intersected with numerous rivers, streams and canals, all of which are of assistance to the defence and hindrances to the attack. Because of the facts, more than ordinary interest is centred on the operations of General Patton's Third Army in Lorraine. If, in spite of the obstacles of nature and the enemy, this army continues to make headway it will be a good augury for the campaign on _ the whole of the Western Front. Bitter memories of the conditions in the trench warfare of the winters of 1914-18 are not a reliable guide to what can happen this year. Then the armies were close-locked and close-packed. In the forward zones there was not a yard of that had not been overturned by artillery and mortar bombardment. The roads and all the natural watercourses were smashed, so that until the heavy frost arrived late in December the fighting areas were more quagmires than firm ground. In addition, the narrow-wheeled transport cut deeply into the soil. This war is one of defended localities rather than of trenches, with widi spaces between the defended areas in which hardly a shell may fall. Consequently the ground is not so cut up, and the wide-wheeled vehicles can easily negotiate rainsoaked paddocks when the roads have to be vacated. Nevertheless, the difficulties of a winter offensive in France are still great, and only the urgencies of tho case will have induced the Allied Supreme Command to put the Third Army into the attack.

The offensive is a two-pronged one, the heads of which may converge or continue their separate ways with each contributing to the success of the other. From positions on the borders of the of Luxemburg, the left wing is striking at the historic Moselle Gate, which leads ultimately to the Rhine at Coblenz. Its entrance is held by the enemy at Thionville and its exit is guarded by heavy fortifications about Trier. A strip of secondary but yet strong defences connects these two points. The American thrust is a little to the north-west of Thionville and may result in the isolation of that fortress. The importance the enemy attaches to this part of the operation is made clear by the fierceness of his counterattack at Kerling. The right wing of the assault is roughly north-east from Nancy and appears to be the stronger. Most comment interprets this advance as an attempt to encircle the great fortress city of Metz, but no stretching of the imagination is necessary to picture it turning a little and moving on Strasbourg, one of the most favoured crossing places of the Rhine for armies moving east or west. General Patton is thus in the fortunate position of a commander possessed of a plan with branches. His divisions have room to manoeuvre, and they can move in almost every direction and win objectives which will fit in with the plans of the Supreme Command. There will be a measure of poetic justice if the Americans, instead of assaulting Metz, starve it into submission as did the Prussians when Marshal Bazaine wrongly retired to its shelter in the early stages of the war of 1870. There seems to be little reason why the Americans should exhaust their strength in attacks on the city. Certainly it is a road and railway centre, and possession of it would relieve their communications. But in the neighbourhood are numerous other roads and railways on which all the traffic of the army could by-pass Metz. It would be a different matter if the German divisions locked in the fortress were so numerous that they could erupt on to the Americans' communications a;' a field army. Then their swift destruction might be imperative. But if there is only the normal garrison, plus a few refugees from the mobile German divisions, they could bo contained by a small number of Americans from the rest area. There are other reasons why General Patton will desire to push on rather than allow the attractions of Metz to hold his attention. Tho Germans have already lost 87,000,000 tons of coal produced annually in France, Belgium and Luxemburg, Dutch Limburg and at Aachen, as well as 12,000,000 tons of iron ore, 3,000,000 tons of steel and 40 to 50 per cent of their bauxite supplies. Besides the Ruhr other sources of supply for these necessities are in the Saar Basin, which is only a few miles ahead of General Patton. The capture or destruction of these resources constitutes an objective of far greater value than Metz. Here is another branch to Patton's plan. But it must not be overlooked that if only a comparatively few miles separate him from this Saar prize they may bo very difficult miles. HITLER'S SILENCE Hitler's silence on the occasion of the Nazi Party's anniversary has started a fresh spate of speculation. Indeed there must be some dark reason why one who raised himself to supreme power by demagogy should forswear the art, just when the need is greatest to sting or swindle the German people into renewed effort. Speculation could be scotched and rumour exploded by simply producing Hitler in public. Why does he not speak and why does he remain a recluse? The excuse that he is too close tied to military business is empty. If he could take time off to compose the long-winded rant called a proclamation, he could spare five minutes more to step to a microphone and broadcast it. His coyness seems to have descended upon him with German defeats. After El Alarnein and Stalingrad he froze into silence for most of 1943 until in September he was thawed out by hot rage at Italy's defection. At the New Year he was

heard again in a cry of desperation and then no more until July 21, when he hastened to reassure (if that is the right word) the German people that he had escaped assassination. But he remained voiceless and invisible on Heroes' Day in March and now again on his pet party anniversary. The plain man's explanation would be that the Fuehrer had been found no leader in a crisis, that he was sulking in his tent, afraid to face the people on whom he had brought disaster and disgrace—unable even to command his voice. On the other hand the diseased but cunning mind of Hitler may be deliberately set on creating a mystery. The Napoleonic legend did not germinate while Bonaparte moved among the people and generalled the armies. It began to flourish only when Napoleon was removed to the distant seclusion of St. Helena. As a disciple of the Corsican, Hitler may have caught the idea and decided to attempt the creation of his own legend in advance of exile.

Those who listened to Himmler's performance as deputy could believe that some such imposture was in the making. The ceremony sounded as if those present were harking back to some awful druidic rite in the Black Forest. The measured repetitions began to sound like incantations, the solemn intoning of "Adolf Hitler" suggested the naming of a supreme being. While the sane outsider can laugh at such mumbo-jumbo, it may impress and bemuse the over-stretchcd German mass mind. If its.underlying hysteria be taken into account, Hitler's remoteness makes sense in the madhouse. He goes into voluntary seclusion, withdraws into the wilderness like prophets of old, while Himmler and Goebbels pump up the legend. Hitler js advertised as wrestling with the spirit, working for the salvation of his people, far too busy to speak or show himself. With the drowning German people, reduced to elutching at straws, this political trickery may succeed for a time. Before long, however, Hitler will bo expected to descend with the tables of stone from his Berchtesgaden Sinai. The propaganda play will be played out and reaction—swift and overwhelming—must set in. If this explanation seems far-fetched, it is no more insane than the present Nazi line of action. Listen to Goebbels, for instance, talking at this hopeless date of fighting on until the Allies'are "prepared to conclude a decent peace." He invokes decency in face of Germany's black record of crime and at a moment when his crazy minions are launching rocketbombs into the stratosphere to plunge faster than sound and reckless of target on the bruised body of England. Hitler may have a madman's cunning and VI and V2, produced at a time when Germany should be suing for mercy, prove that a madman he is. As he is no longer presentable, he is being exploited as a dark mystery.