Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, MAY 25, 1944. NAZI MISCALCULATIONS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 May 1944, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, MAY 25, 1944. NAZI MISCALCULATIONS

ASSOCIATED with the fact that the Allied offensive in Italy is going well is the interesting and not less important fact that there is evidence even at the stage now reached of yet another German miscalculation. The Gustav Line has been stormed and passed and the Hitler Line, as one correspondent put it yesterday, has been gripped firmly at both ends by the Allied troops and battered in its centre, while in addition the enemy is being attacked formidably in rear by the Allied beachhead "forces. The Germans are still resisting with desperate tenacity, and nothing else is expected than that they will continue to do so for a time yet to be determined. From their own reports as well as from those of Allied origin, however, it seems quite clear that they had hoped to make a much longei stand in the defensive positions from which they have been ejected so speedily. It is obvious that nothing short of the hope of being able to lengthen out a defensive campaign over an extended period would have made it worth while for the Germans to maintain strong forces in Italy and to attempt to keep them supplied. According to General Alexander six enemy divisions out of 25 have had to be sent north to deal with Italian patriots or Jugoslav Partisans, which would leave 1!) in the field south of Koine. In view of the heavy demands made and about to be made on German military strength, the cal] made upon this strength in Italy must be of serious concern. The call might be worth meeting if the Germans could count, as they no doubt thought they could, on maintaining a stubborn and protracted defence in southern Italy, and so doing something to cover their exposed Balkan flank. There are increasing indications, however, that enemy hopes of a protracted stand in southern Italy are tending to disappear. Some German commentators are already talking of the possibility of a withdrawal to the north. In view of the narrowing distance between the main southern front, on which the Allies are attacking so effectively, and the Anzio beach-head, from which another formidable attack has now been launched, it seems not at all unlikely that before long retreat may become, from the enemy standpoint, an imperative necessity and the only alternative, if it is an alternative, to disaster. • It has to be considered here that in view of the overwhelming air superiority established by the Allies, and the nature of the country and communications through which a withdrawal must be made, retreat has its own peculiar perils for the German forces in southern Italy.

As has been suggested, it seems wholly improbable that had the prospect now opened been foreseen by the Germans, they would have risked sending a powerful.army into southern Italy. It may the more readily be believed that the enemy High Command has macle a grave miscalculation in this matter since it has time and again made precisely similar miscalculations on the Eastern front and incurred the penalty that was to be expected in the circumstances. Stalingrad, the Dnieper bend and the Crimea are outstanding examples in point. In each instance, after hope of victory had vanished, the enemy clung to exposed positions in the hope of being able to make a lengthy or indefinitely prolonged defensive stand. In each instance the hope was disappointed, and the Germans suffered disastrous defeat and loss. In Italy a stage at least has been reached at which the German defensive is falling far short of German expectations. From the Allied standpoint these facts have their pertinent and encouraging bearing on the outlook in Western Europe, where the way is being prepared by an air offensive of unexampled, power and the United Nations, as President Roosevelt has said, are about to strike new and mightier blows.