GERMANY OVERRUN

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 89, Issue 98, 27 April 1945, Page 4

GERMANY OVERRUN

is now overrun by the United Nations. The Bavarian redoubt has not yet been attacked, but that region does not provide facilities for continuing an organised defence of the country. All that is possible in that region is for the forces gathered there to hold out while their stores and ammunition last. The period of resistance cannot be assessed until two forces are known - —the Allied power to strike and the enemy power to resist. Hitler’s Bavarian redoubt must accept static fighting in which Allied air power provides the means of continuing an attack for days and nights. The moves made to carry on the fight in selected areas of Germany are doomed to failure because the German strength is being reduced by surrenders, the dislocation of the transport system, and the deterioration of the food-supply organisation. While this process of collapse is gaining momentum in Germany the defence of Northern Italy is crumbling. The Germans, had they the strength, would have held on to the Valley of the Po because it is a natural defence barrier. The crumbling process is in evidence on all fronts and there appears to be no prospect of the Germans reforming. Ilad the contraction of forces from the occupied territory been staged at an early period, say early last year, the possibility is that Europe would have witnessed siege warfare under modern conditions. These conditions include the dominance of the air by the attackers against which there appears to be no effective answer.