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Show I I I I I 1 I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I 11 FORWARD MARCH By n. S. Sims, Jr. war by - Italy, und.er Badoglio, against Germany. It is necessary very often, as we read the daily headlines that proclaim pro-claim the minor struggles of the war, to glance at the record in order or-der to comprehend what has occurred. oc-curred. We doubt if history offers a campaign of such magnitude, when measured in results, purchased pur-chased at an almost unbelievably low price. Situation Reversed In Russia . . . The reversal of the war's outlook, out-look, in Russia, has been hardly less significant. Instead of battling for the possession of Stalingrad the Red army is today fighting to destroy the Dnieper line of the Nazis, more than 600 miles away. The Germans no longer threaten Russia and, instead, it is the Russians Rus-sians who now meance the safety of the German army. It cannot be said that the Soviet Sov-iet has purchased its enormous gains without great loss of life but ,at least, the facts are not available and consequently we are unable to express an intelligent opinion upon the relative losses sustained by Germany and Russia in the great battles that have shaken western Russia during the past year. German Offense Disappears . . . Nazi retreats on the battlefields of Russia, Africa and Italy do not explain to the full the astonishing alteration of German hopes. The highly-tooted U-boat offensive has collapsed and American supplies and manpower move steadily to the fronts. Failure of the undersea offensive leaves Germany on the defensive everywhere on land, in GERMANY IS NOW ON THE DEFENSIVE IN EVERY PHASE OF THE WAR-JAPANESE WAR-JAPANESE ALSO LOSING The present state of the war in Europe abundantly justifies the strategy of the Anlgo-American high command. The gains that have been scored since that late-October day when General Montgomery's Eighth army attacked General Rommel's forces at El Alamein have been decisive. It was just a year ago that the camaplgn in North Africa began. At the time the Germans were still pounding the Red army at Stalingrad. Stalin-grad. German expansion was at its greatest spread. Much has happened hap-pened in the last twelve months and the triumph has been purchased pur-chased at a cost in men that is exceedingly ex-ceedingly low for the results accomplished. ac-complished. Year of Victory In Mediterranean . . . Not only has all of Africa been recaptured but the spectacular landing of Anglo-American troops in northwest Africa was followed by the destruction of the German-Italio German-Italio army, the invasion of Sicily, the invasion of Italy, the collapse of Mussolini and the declaration of intact. In China they continue to control vital areas and as long as they retain Burma there is little prospect of getting any volume of supplies to our ally. Aside from sea and air losses the Japs have not been severely hurt in the past year, especially when we remember remem-ber that the homeland has not been bombed. However, any overall appraisal of the war against Japan must end with an optimistic note. There are signs that something is on the wing in the Pacific. the aid and at sea. i There are three other factors that have added greatly to the difficulties that beset the Reich. The increasing tonnage of bombs, now being dropped into hitherto inaccessible regions of Germany, is devastating her war industries, with inescapable weakening of the fighting services inevitable. The Threat of Captive Peoples . . . The aerial bombardment has often of-ten been called an "interior blockade" block-ade" because its purpose is to deplete de-plete Nazi resources just as the sea blockade, preventing imports, slowly strangles internal economy. The control of the high seas has been the paramount strength of the United Nations, both in starving starv-ing .Germany of necessary items and in permitting the strengthening strengthen-ing of all the fighting fronts engaged en-gaged against the Nazis. The third factor that now increases in-creases its potent influence upon the Germans is the steadily mounting mount-ing belligerence of the captive peoples. peo-ples. So long as Nazi manpower was supreme the conquering Germans Ger-mans were able to maintain a firm check upon subject nations but now that the stress of war is compelling com-pelling some shift of Nazi strength the future promises bitter explosions explo-sions that will inflict serious losses loss-es upon the Hitlerites. Germany's Lone Hope Of Victory .... A conservative review -of the war reveals that Germany- is sustaining sus-taining steady losses without being able to inflict similar losses upon the enemies that increase their pressure. Nazi leaders know they cannot win the war by retreating, by enduring bombing losses and suffering repulses at sea. The end is inevitable except for one forlorn for-lorn hope, that the United Nations will squabble among themselves and open the way for a German escape. The deterioration of Germany's war position is much worse than that of Japan. Concentration of effort ef-fort upon the Germans has paid dividends. The Anglo-American campaign in the Mediterranean area, contrasted with direct cross-channel cross-channel assault, has likewise vindicated vindi-cated itself. Our gains have been enormous and our losses are less than those of the enemy. Japs Lose On Eea And In The Air ... In the "Pacific war against the Japanese the situation has developed devel-oped . favorably, compared with that existing a year ago. Just twelve months back we were battling bat-tling desperately to hold our grip upon Guadalcanal and it was by no means certain that the enemy would not overpower us with a a combination of naval and air power. The Solomon Islands have been largely captured and Japan has suffered considerable losses in the air and on the sea, in cargo vessels ves-sels and warships. Progress has been made on New Guinea. Jap Army Retains Its Strength . . . The Japanese retain great land strenth, with a large army almost |