GERMAN ARMY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25241, 2 June 1943, Page 3

GERMAN ARMY

DECLINING MORALE REPORTED SUICIDES AND DESERTIONS LONDON, May 31. The morale of the 200.000 anti-in-vasion troops in Norway declined to a marked degree after the German defeat in Russia. It slumped still further following the Tunisian debacle, and fell to an even lower ebb when the R.A.F.’s pounding of the Reich began to leak through, state reports received in Norwegian circles in London. The Germans themselves are committing acts of sabotage, and many deserters are escaping to Sweden. There are frequent suicides, and several concentration camps have been opened for mutinous Germans. The nervousness of coastal guards has resulted in a number of German patrol boats being fired on and sunk. German troops are most worried about the lack of details of the R.A.F.’s bombing of Germany, and many are so worried that they are seeking the truth from Norwegians, who pick up the news on illegal radio sets. Suicides in and desertions from the German Army are increasing, according to neutral reports reaching London. They are heaviest among wounded men from the Russian front who are ordered back there. An official j4azi order recently issued states that all German soldiers who committed suicide in the Haute-Garonne area of France must be buried in the parishes in which they were stationed. There has also been an increase in the number of suicides amqng “fifth columnists ” and quislings in neutral countries in the last two weeks. In France large numbers of deserters from the German Army are seeking sanctuary in monasteries and Roman Catholic charitable organisations.