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Show ' ' ' ' ' I I I I I I I I I l H Ml 11,11 FORWARD MARCH By H. S. Sims, Jr. HARD FIGHTING MARKS WEST FRONT AS ANGLO-AMFRICANS ANGLO-AMFRICANS SEEK TO WEAR OUT NAZI RESERVES The Allledarimes in western Europe are definitely attempting' to end the war, if it can be ended, in 1944. The scope of the continuous contin-uous offensive that is being pressed press-ed against the Germans can hardly hard-ly mean anything else. The weather has been unfavorable unfavor-able but if the knockout can be scored now it will prevent the enemy from having a winter in which to recruit fighting men and recoup supplies. A few months of breathing spell can help a hard-pressed hard-pressed foe tremendoysly and it is important that the Nazis' be ground in combat that never lets up. Of course there is no information informa-tion available as to the present prospects of a decision. We doubt if Gen. Eisenhower himself is able to say definitely that the Germans will be whipped at this, or that, point. He is taking advantage of his superiority in men and materiel mater-iel and giving the enemy the works. Naturally, he is watching to rely upon carrier- planes. When? ! land bases are available for air- 1 craft, our position will be consid- 1 R erably improved. P There is no reason to suspect that the Japs will fight as desper- ately for every island. In the Sol- m omons they shot the works for Guadalcanal but, once this was occupied strogly, the recovery of H other islands, while tough, was not the same type job. This will be 9 true in the Philippines where the first breach into the island posi- tion will be the hardest to con- solidate. g To Dig Out Japs In The Inlands ... g The occupation of the islands will cut the far-flung Japanese empire in two. Then will come the jg task of ousting the invaders from 9 the rich prizes they have seized from the British, the Dutch and others in the South Seas. Jap S garrisons will be cut off, in time, ft from the mainland but if they dig 1 in ,and this is what seems proba- i ble, it will take prolonged and bitter fighting to root them out. jj The bombing of Tokyo from 1 Saipan opens up the possibility of a prolonged and increasing aerial I bombardment of the enemy's industrial in-dustrial areasn. This phase of the war in the East, in our opinion, u whn it gets going full force, ought jj to secure relatively greater re- suits than the similar campaign j against the Germans. After all, jj the Japs can fight but they are not to be compared with the Ger- mans in industrial fficiency, eith- er in production or replacing the blasted plants. i to see what happens and to be ready to exploit any favorable development. Nazis Seek To Save Industries . . . The war will continue next year if the Germans keep our armies from getting across the Rhine and into the Ruhr valley, the industrial indus-trial heart of Germany. To give up the Rhine's west bank, north of Cologne, would expose the Ruhr, besides locing industries on. the west bank of the river. Most experts say that the German gen-rals gen-rals had no other choice but to stand and fight where they are. We will not attempt to enumerate enumer-ate the important industrial areas of the region or list their products Suffice it to say that, without the Ruhr the Nazi armies will begin to run out of munitions, equipment equip-ment and weapons. With the Ruhr the products of the great industrial indus-trial plants move hourly to the battleline, only a few miles west. By contrast the Allies have to haul their stuff across the Atlantic Atlan-tic and from the British Isles. Strength Of German Army Uncertain . . . We have long since ceased to attempt to estimate the number of fighting men in the contending contend-ing armies. The Germans seem to have more men than we thought they would have after the debacle of northern France. The Allies, we are sure, will continue toadd manpower man-power until the job is finished. The outcome of the campaign depends upon the number of Germans Ger-mans to be killed before the Nazi military machine cracks. No American should misunderstand misunder-stand the nature of the task that Allied armies face or the stern and stark courage of our fighting men. Advancing upon German positions strongly prepared, they are being heavily engaged. German Ger-man soldiers are being killed but, never forget, war is a two-edged sword and what happened to one army is happening to the others, in greater or lesser degree. There has been some comment upon the failure of the Russians, thus far, to mount an all-out attack at-tack in the Poland plains. The suggestion is even made that the Anglo-Americans are carrying the ball. This is erroneous because the Red army is tying up the greater bulk of Teutonic divisions. Even so, it is expected that, with the adveat of Winter weather to freeze highways the Russians will launch a tremendous offensive in the -East to coincide with our drive in the west. Russian Move Expected . . . While it has been some months since the Russians moved forward on the Polish sector, closest to Berlin, there is no reason, as yet, to suspect the good faith of the Soviet. The clearing up of the Baltic region re-gion and the steady progress all through Hungary, toward the Southern flank of the Germans, are important and may lead to considerable gains. Frankly, the so-called experts in this country have little inside information as to what is planned plan-ned from the Russian side. The, presumption is that the great plan, devised at Teheran and so far carried out, will be followed. This means, undoubtedly, a renewal re-newal of the Red army's defensive, defen-sive, aimed at scoring a knockout in the East. Japs Fight Hard On Leyte . . . The war in the Pacific ocean presents the hard fight to oust the Japs from Leyte, where they are making every effort to delay or to thwart the Americans in seizing full possession of the island. is-land. The Japs have thrown land-based land-based planes into action vigorously, vigorous-ly, despite losses and we have had |