DURATION OF WAR

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 272, 17 November 1943, Page 3

DURATION OF WAR

KEENLY DISCUSSED IN BRITAIN (Special Correspondent—N.Z.P.A.) Recd. 7.45 p.m. London, Nov. 15. The end of the European war and whether to will come quickly or slowly is one of the most debated subjects in Britain to-day. Mr. J. L. Gavin says: “Complete deliverance of Russia is one matter: deliverance of the rest of Europe is another. If by mid-winter the Nazis are swept from the whole of Soviet soil, the fearful worst of the war for Russia will be over before long. For Britain and America the heaviest, deadliest part of the war is only beginning. That is what a second front means.’’ Mr. Garvin refers to Mr. Churchill's comment that 1944 will be a year of supreme sacrifice, and adds: “There is one conceivable means whereby this stark ordeal might largely be lightened—if swifter victory is obtained. It pivots on one big ‘if.’ Can the war be shortened by that overwhelming weight of British and American air supremacy which will be reached during the winter? Can we shatter German fighting power by destroying its industrial foundations to a sufficient extent? Can we do this within six months? What will be the concrete effect on Germany’s physical fighting power? That and nothing else is the essence of the question. We dare not count yet upon decisive success with mass bombing within the next six months, but we cannot exclude the possibility of that epoch-making event.

The Sunday Times commentator “Scrutator,’’ comparing November 1943, with October. 1918, says that two differences ought to be fully allowed fo? in the adverse scale. Firstly, the German army is not yet so short of reserves as it was in 1918; secondly, the difference of the season. Good campaigning months In western Europe are May and September inclusive, when the state of the ground constitutes no major obstacle to the conduct of an offensive.’’

“Scrutator” refers 1o the ice front in Russia and the air front for bombers from the United Kingdom, and expresses the view that, “the former should suffice to see Ihe war carried clean off the soil of Russia. If at the same time we could fully utilise the facilities which winter gives for bombing Berlin and eastern Germany, the psychological strain might reach breaking point. Given good weather, the destruction of 74 per cent, of Berlin (the percentage of the destruction of Hamburg) is not outside possibility this winter. Were it achieved, few things could accomplish more to destroy German resistance.”