FURTHER OFFENSIVES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25560, 13 June 1944, Page 5

FURTHER OFFENSIVES

FROM’ ITALY AND BALKANS DR BENES’S PREDICTION LONDON, June U. An Allied invasion cf France from the south is forecast by Dr Benes (the Czechoslovak Prime Minister). He also predicts vast Russian offensives through Czechoslovakia and the Balkans. Speaking in London, Dr Benes said: “ The Allied armies continue to advance towards Northern Italy. We shall not have to wait long for an attack from there towards France and the Balkans, and thence to Germany proper. A new and final offensive by the Soviet armies through the Balkans to the eastern part of Germany is also imminent. The Russians may drive through Eastern Galicia to Czechoslovakia and through Rumania to the Danube provinces of the Balkans.” Mr Max Werner, military expert and historian, say., Germany may collapse by November because of her inability to withstand pressure from the east

and west. "A big battle will develop within a few months, the unimaginable intensity of which will put into the shade the question of a long war in Europe,” he states. “ The , Allies’ superiority in numbers will increase, and a general offensive on three main fronts—west, east, and south—will create a terrible replacement crisis for the German command.”