GERMAN MORALE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 88, Issue 4, 6 January 1944, Page 4

GERMAN MORALE

ARMY MUST BE BEATEN TASK IN THE FIELD (P.A.) Wellington, Jan. 5. Stating that since coming back to New Zealand he had been asked frequently if the German morale was breaking, Brigadier I. M. Inglis, D. 5.0., M.C., V.D., who is in New Zealand on furlough from the Middle East campaigning, said that his replies to the question had been that “the German morale will not be broken until we break it.” Before the German people gave in the German army would have to be beaten in the field of battle, he added. In the opinion of the Brigadier the characteristics of the German troops were much the same as they were in the last war. “The German is an excellent fighter with missle weapons,” he said, “but is not nearly .so good once our troops have closed with him. As for the Italians —well, they are just supine. They certainly do not want to fight. The population of southern Italy is of the peasant type; they are extremely poor, and all they want is ! to be left alone. “They seem to be a great people for slogans, and everywhere you go, painted on the house-tops and at the street corners, are such slogans as •Believe, Obey, Fight,’ or 'Conquer or Die.' They have been obviously put there to ‘jack-up’ the morale of the inhabitants, but they just do not mean 8 tning to them, in southern Italy it is impossible to meet a professing Facist now. But they are all the same. They talk, and talk, and talk; but never do anything!" Fighting Grounds.

Speaking of the country in which the New Zealand Division was now fighting. Brigadier Inglis said that it was vastly different from the Western Desert. “In the desert," he said,

"there was opportunity for manoeuvres; there the enemy could he outflanked; there was no rain or flooded rivers, and no destruction of private property. In Italy, conditions are just the reverse. The villages are perched on the slopes of mountains and what roads there are run from crag-top to crag-top. Before a battle, vast quantities of stores and ammunllion of every description have to be 'brought up to the front line. During wet weather these roads are full of

bog holes; they wind along the mountain sides, and the courses are so narrow that trucks have difficulty in getting round them. "During their retreat the Germans destroyed everything that might be of any use and blew up all the bridges. The physical difficulties of the terrain are enormous and are all in favour of the defenders. The Sangro River L-eld us up for a week, as it was in flood, and we had to wait until the waters subsided. After that the Germans had to be cleared from the opposite bank before we could put the bridges across the river." Brigadier Inglis pointed out that a great deal of the fighting took place in narrow valleys flanked with snowcapped mountains. This meant that the German line could not be turned as was the case in the Western Desert. “We have to push right through their defences.” said Ihe brigadier. “Right ur» th° Po Valley the terrain of Italy is of the mountainous type and it would he a long and strenuous task to drive the enemy out of Italy, as, in addition to these [physical factors favouring the Germans, they were established in strong I defences of their own which they had | had time Io prepare.”