GERMAN EQUIPMENT

Southland Times, Issue 25335, 11 April 1944, Page 4

GERMAN EQUIPMENT

Use Of Ersatz Material NEW YORK, April 9. “The mobilized economic strength of the United Nations is now overwhelmingly greater than that of the Axis,’ said the United States Foreign Economic Administrator, Mr Leo T. Crowley. “The Germans may fight on for years, but it will be a defensive, losing fight, which will produce a German exhaustion unparalleled since the Thirty Years War. The Nazi effort to stem the tide of the Allied factories readied its peak in the summer of 1943. Since then the extreme difficulty. of meeting requirements has become increasingly apparent.” United States War Department officials report that the German war machine and equipment have started on the down grade. Generally speaking, German tanks and planes are still rugged with their vital parts in good condition, but the less essential parts are cheap and some ersatz material has been found in the captured vehicles. The Germans are also using less artillery and grenades than hitherto. . Captured Germans blame inferior equipment for their capture. The fact that the Germans are using wooden bullets may reflect a shortage of steel and lead.