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Show I I I I I I I I I I I I l il III I I.I. I -1 : 1 1 1 . Ill FORWARD MARCH By H. S. Sims, Jr. liilnl;ilili.liil..l.ili.l..l,.lillil..jii:li.l.iluiHliil.ilul.i GERMANY SUSTAINS HEAVY LOSSES IN EARLY PHASES OF ALLIED DRIVE TO DESTROY NAZI ARMIES The Battle of Europe is underway under-way in Italy, France and Poland, with Germany staging a bitter, but hopeless, defense. Everywhere the United Nations make progress and, despite their offensive role, inflict heavier losses loss-es upon the Nazis. It is a performance perfor-mance that can end only in the collapse of German resistance. The campaign began in Italy on May 11th, was expanded in Normandy Nor-mandy on June 6th and intensified intensi-fied when the Red army launched its terrific drive in White Russia late in June. The attack is developing devel-oping both in France and the East, with pressure increasing as greater great-er numbers are thrown into the fray. ' Two Great Offensives Begin . . . Our invasion of Western Europe successful as it has been, hardly involves more than a fifth of the Anglo-American, forces. The others oth-ers will go into battle as rapidly as the present beachhead expands or others are seized. In White Russia the Red army has already scored one of the great victories of the war, giving the Germans a lesson in blitz tactics. tac-tics. Even so vast Russian forces are not yet involved and what Hitler Hit-ler has experienced in the East is only a sample of what is ahead. The timing of the Russian assault as-sault surprised many experts who expected the Red army to hold its blow until the attack on the Western Wes-tern front was fully mounted. The Soviet offensive was the deathblow death-blow to' all suspicions about whether whe-ther the Russians are in the war for keeps. German Bosses Are Heavy . . . The three-way land offensive has inflicted heavy losses upon the Germans whose manpower problem is already acute. It is probably safe to conclude that more than 500,000 Nazis have been eliminated since May 11th, with about sixty percent of them being liquidated in the East. The strategy of Germany involves in-volves a holding defense designed to inflict unbearable losses upon attacking forces. Already the fallacy fal-lacy of the plan appears in the heavy losses sustained by the Nazis as they are engulfed and overwhelmed by aggressive offensives. offen-sives. . , Inevitable Catastrophe Ahead ... It is now questionable whether the Hitlerites can long continue to resist. As pressure increases tin all sides the danger of disaster mounts and, like a dam, the German Ger-man system will crumple and disappear dis-appear if one major break permits Allied power to get behind the circle of defenders around the Reich. The Russian smash in White Russia may be such a catastrophe but it is too early to tell. If not, the Anglo-American forces in Western Europe, once built up to full strength, are apt to go on through and turn the campaign into a a triumphal blitz. |