European Front

ON THE WORLD TODAY

HITLER’S Fortress faces its supreme test this year. That fact is indicated by the floundering battle in the mud of the eastern front, by the hurricane of air assault upon the industrial vitals of the Third Reich in the West, by the mustering of invasion forces at the ports of Britain, by the indecisive combat in Tunisia.

Seven months remain of the period set by the United Nations for launching the “invasions” planned at Casablanca. Preliminaries find the Axis confronted by a military situation without precedent in this war.

Hitherto the Wehrmacht has encountered but one powerful foe on one front at a time. Today the Axis partners are snared in full-scale war on two land fronts — Russia and North Africa — which tax their energies and equipment to the limit. Furthermore, the air war above Europe has now assumed genuine second front proportions. And the prospect is for speedy intensification of these three fronts.

In the past Hitler’s Russian foe has been compelled each spring to accept wholly the strategy of defensive retreat, because of inferiority in manpower and equipment. Now the audacious Red Army is contesting the initiative even during the period of thaw. The continuing ferocity of the fighting in the Donets, toward the Dnieper, and in the central and northern reaches of the Russian front, regardless of mud, indicates Russia’s intentions.

At present neither side occupies secure positions. The winter campaign has given Russia jumping-off places for an attack she is preparing to deliver the moment the ground firms. But Russia needs more than these to ensure success. Necessity drives the Red armies toward the Dnieper, in the Donets, around Orel, and below Leningrad.

Russia prepares for attack

These objectives would block Germany’s counterplan for a new lunge toward Caucasian oil by way of the Crimea and the Southern Ukraine, establish Russian bombers within 450 miles of the Ploesti oil fields in Rumania - whence the Nazis draw about 50 per cent of their diminishing oil supply — and flank Germany’s possible alternative: a smash at Moscow from the dwindling Smolensk salient.

The hard facts of Germany’s position in the East explain her dilemma, the fade-out of Hitler as active commander, the rehabilitation of the professional army (Marshal Guderian is back as Tank Inspector and von Halder as Chief of Staff), and the agreement of the Party to accept army demands for incorporation of the Elite Guardthe Party army — into the Wehrmacht. The Third Reich is unable to disentangle herself from a foe now her equal in weapons and direction, and her superior in overall manpower.

There can be little doubt of the accuracy of Stalin’s blunt assertions on the situation. Russian war output is soaring in all categories of arms. Figures from Britain disclose that supplies sufficient to provide the initial equipment for 32 armored divisions and 400 air squadrons have been sent in by Russia’s war partners. More than half of this has been shipped during the past sixteen weeks.

Another source of Russian equipment is German war industry itself. More than 140 locomotives, thousands of cars, half a dozen armored trains, hundreds of tanks and aircraft in perfect condition, thousands of tons of usable supplies together with approximately 12,000 pieces of artillerythis is part of the booty Russia is converting to her own uses. It will count heavily, its subtraction from German resources is as important a fact as the 500,000 prisoners Russia has taken and the million casualties Germany has suffered this winter.

Germany’s all-out gamble

Nazi plans call for another great offensive late this spring. Reiteration of the importance of Russia in proclamations allegedly by Hitler, and speeches by Göring, Goebbels, and other Party leaders, underline the determination of the General Staff to embark upon a huge gamble.

Germany still hopes to wreck Russian military strength in time to release the bulk of her army to repel the Allies from the West before they can establish a serious foothold on the Continent.

So her propaganda centers insistently upon her role as “Savior of Europe from Bolshevism.” This is her last hope for a compromise peace. Should Allied invasion from the West fail, the army faction in the Reich believe they can achieve stalemate and make headway dividing the Allies. Should Allied invasion succeed, they prefer AngloAmerican occupation of Germany to Russian. That might still enable them to foster collisions among the victorious Allies on the questions of territorial settlement.

These purposes ignore the “unconditional surrender" terms posted by the United Nations, as well as the twenty-year military alliance between Britain and Russia.

Transport worries Germany

Less conspicuous is Germany’s difficulty with transport the weakest link in her war machine.

1. Shipping. Driven from the Atlantic except for restricted traffic along the European shores, Germany’s shipping is undergoing extinction. Replacements are negligible. This may force a foray of desperation by her pocket battleships and cruisers before long.

Ominous, given her shortages elsewhere, are the losses Germany is taking in the Mediterranean. The connection between her ability to prolong the losing fight in North Africa and her ability to supply Rommel and von Arnim is obvious and vital. It makes the possibility of a sweep into Spain stronger than ever. She is sacrificing shipping recklessly to maintain her Tunisian supply: three out of every five ships sent from Italy are being sunk.

Occupation of Vichy France gave Hitler control of some 600,000 tons of French shipping then in Vichy control. This new supplement for the Axis is now being exhausted rapidly. The rate of sinkings encourages Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham, Commander of the United Nations Naval Forces in the Mediterranean, to predict extinction of all Axis shipping there within twelve months.

2. Railways. Germany’s rail transport system is likewise deteriorating. It is suffering primarily from neglect of construction and from the tremendous burdens of traffic all over the Continent. Belated efforts to retrieve the building situation are being offset by the growing power of the Allied air arm, which is supplementing the deficits in Nazi rail transport created by Russia in the East.

Objectives of the gigantic air offensive under way from Britain these past several weeks are German railways, submarine construction centers and bases, and supply industries. Locomotive factories are being deluged with block-busters. The sprawling network of yards along the Rhine, and westward into France, is being blasted with calculated fury. Mosquito bombers and fighter planes scour the occupied countryside, hunting trains in transit.

German air power is insufficient to halt this progressive assault. Overall losses suffered by the Luftwaffe now match Germany’s output of new planes, leaving her position static. The air power of her three major foes, America, Britain, and Russia, continues to widen its margins of superiority.

Luftwaffe losses in North Africa approximate four for every Allied plane downed. Even the American bombers over Europe average four German planes destroyed for every bomber lost. With close to 50 per cent of her air power tied up in Russia, the unbalance between German competency in the air in the West and Allied raiding strength begins to be impressive. Witness nearly 6000 forays over the Continent during the past thirteen months. The monthly tonnage of Allied bombs dropped has climbed this spring from about 4500 to more than 10,000 tons.

Submarines threaten

German counter-attack against these blows at transport, supply lines, and industrial production is coming in the submarine campaign. This has been preparing for months. The bomb showers on German submarine construction centers — Copenhagen, Hengelo, Emden, Wilhelmshaven, Kiel — and upon German bases and repair shops at Cherbourg, Bordeaux, Brest, Flushing, SaintNazaire, and Lorient have reduced the danger to our shipping somewhat. Yet it is still sufficient to justify the grave warnings issued by Admiral Harold R. Stark, Commander of the American Fleet in European Waters, and by the British Admiralty.

The lull in ship sinkings in the Atlantic during the winter months is misleading. In this war, as in the First World War, U-boat activities have fallen off regularly between December and March. Spring may be expected to bring a steep rise in the tempo of the seaways war, as the Axis launches its supreme effort to win time in the East by delaying invasion of the West. Conservative estimates give Germany approximately 500 submarines for this drive - the largest U-boat fleet ever used.

The Nazis are not relying upon the submarine alone to throttle Allied invasion attempts. Around the walls of the Fortress, and within it, they are bending the conscripted energies of Europe to the task of elaborating defenses and piling up supplies. Impending attack from Britain has led to overhauling of defenses built these past two years.

Large areas of Zeeland, South Holland, North Holland, and Western Utrecht are being depopulated and their buildings leveled to the ground. Lorient, Narvik, and Brest are completely evacuated. Western portions of The Hague resemble ruined Rotterdam-more than 90,000 of the inhabitants have been evicted from homes condemned to demolition. The progressive destruction of buildings includes hotels, museums, hospitals, and business blocks, to make way for elaborate tank traps, nests of pillboxes, miniature forts, and artillery emplacements.

Ports along the European coast are being reduced to rubble heaps of depopulated desolation. In regions considered especially vulnerable, the Nazis are carrying a new system of defense installations twenty miles further inland. Mountain passes and hills far in the interior are being fortified against paratroops.

Impressment of labor

The levée en masse whereby the Germans seek to expand their multitude of labor slaves for industry and conscripts for their new “service army" is proceeding with a ruthlessness that beggars description. The whip and the execution squad are invoked to speed this gigantic enterprise in impressment.

Terror begets terror. The Nazi levée en masse is generating unease in the Reich. The Party press warns all Germans to beware of “foreigners"— who constitute, according to Dr. Fritz Sauckel, Commissioner of Labor, about two thirds of all those now employed in Germany’s war industries. Approximately 800,000 Gestapo agents have been set to watch the “slaves.” Discussion mounts of the dangers of the “Trojan Horse” in the land. Das Schwartze Korps screams daily against the threat of “contamination,” sabotage, circulation of “evil news,” slowdowns in production, multiplying “accidents,” and fires. So deep is the official alarm in Moravia and Bohemia that the Czech Orthodox Church has been dissolved, the Czech Nazi Party disbanded.