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Show AIRCRAFT The country's aircraft, turned out 96,369 piane which compares with 85Q4R 18,1 in 1943. The total wefi Plar planes in 1944 exceeded ,01 81 1943 by 60 per cent. hat scored the greatest gainst in miles and carried the gravest threat twoard the Nazis. When the great offensive began the Germans were supposed to have about 2,000,000 men between the Baltic and the Balkans. They have probably managed to raise some "home guard divisions" but the Russian numerical superiority may be as high as two, or three, to one. Moreover, the Red army has exhibited an unusual skill in the massing of artillery, the delivery de-livery of supplies and the waging of winter warfare. One advantage accrues to the retreating Nazis. As they retire they fall back upon the network of railroads and highways that have greatly strengthened the German war effort. They will be able to supply and shift their soldiers sol-diers easier and faster than the Russians. It may enable them to make a stand before Berlin and to compel the Russians to pause while adequate transportation facilities fa-cilities can be constructed. Certainly, the capture of Berlin would indicate an almost complete collapse of Hitler's armies in the East. The capital, which stretches 34 miles east to west, is not only the political center of Germany but also its leading transportation center and the location of many major factories which, it is estimated, esti-mated, comprise ten per cent of the Reich's industrial facilities. The Situation On Other Fronts . . . - o- I I I I. I I I I I ! I I 'I I ' ' I I I I'1'"'" FORWARD MARCH By H. S. Sims, Jr. - ST '!!!. RUSSIANS CONTINUE FAST ADVANCE BUT LONG SUPPLY LINES MAY FORCE AN EARLY PAUSE In three weeks the massive Red Army offensive advanced, in places 250 miles towards Berlin and, despite the absence of reports re-ports of captives, threatens to engulf en-gulf the Nazi regime In irretrievable irretriev-able disaster. Five years and five months after af-ter Hitler unleashed the dogs of war against Poland the mighty Russian military machine was rumbling ominously through German Ger-man territory, carrying war to the Reich, and the only unanswered unan-swered question was how long the forward movement could continue. The first pace of the forward sweep left behind the Red soldiers a devastated area, which added to the supply problem which inevitably inev-itably slows down any offensive. For more than a score of days the guns of Moscow boomed out victory vic-tory salutes while the Germans continued to yield vital areas and nowhere seemed adequate to check, uch less, defeat the Russians. Rus-sians. As the fourth week of the great drive got underway it was a question ques-tion as to the ability of the Russians Rus-sians to maintain their lines of supply, to deliver to the moving armies the munitions, food and supplies which are necessary to progressive development of the break-through. Another unex plained question involved the pos- sibllity that the Nazis had abandoned aban-doned Poland and advanced areas in a desperate effort to set up defense de-fense along some fortified line inside in-side Germany. Buttlcfront News Is Scarce . . . No front line dispatches came from the battlefront and official communiques only hinted of the powerful forces involved, without clearly revealing whether the German Ger-man retirement was a rout or something of a planned withdrawal. withdraw-al. Military experts foresaw the likelihood of a determined last-ditch last-ditch Nazi stand. The Oder river line was considered a likely possibility pos-sibility but, before the reader sees this column, the Reds may have breacher this natural barrier. East Prussia, the fortress of Prussianism, has been cut off from Germany. Two of its great guardian guar-dian bastions have fallen to the combined drive that assailed the area from the northeast and the south. Te Reds avoided the disaster disas-ter that overtook the Czar's armies ar-mies at Tannenberg, in the First World War, and worked steadily to cut up the the isolated defenders defend-ers of the province. While the Second and Third White Russian armies were attacking at-tacking East Prussia the First Ukrainian army advanced along the Carpathian foothills and then struck toward industrial Silesia, a vital part of the Reich's war economy. Besides sealing off Czezchoslovakia the advance also reached the Oder, establisher a broad front and unhinged the southern sou-thern anchor of the Nazi position in the East. Pay-off Drive In the Center . . . In the center, the direct road to Berlin, where there are no natural arriers, the First. White Russian army moved across frozen fields and rivers, reaching into Branden-urg Branden-urg and to the great plain which stretches past Berlin to the Netherlands Neth-erlands and the North Sea. It Compared to the struggle on the Eastern front the fighting on the Western front is less significant signifi-cant but, even there, the steady and growing pressure of Gen. Eisenhower's Eis-enhower's forces warn the Nazis that any weakening of the line to reinforce the eastern armies will invite distster. Already the Allied armies are taking the offensive, despite the predictions of armchair arm-chair experts that Von Rundstedt's offensive had gained many months' respite. Meanwhile, the Italian front has become somewhat quiet but here the enemy faces the same problem prob-lem that confronts him In the West. Any withdrawal of troops will enable the Anglo-British army, ar-my, now something of a holding force, to move worward into northern nor-thern Italy, linking up with the front in France and opening the way toward Yugoslavian contacts. The war in the Pacific proceeds pro-ceeds extremely well, with every indication confirming earlier suspicions sus-picions that the Japanese forces on Luzon were fatally weakened in an attempt to fight for Leyte. Since Admiral Halsey's Third fleet has been sweeping the skies and the seas, north of the Philippines, the Japs have been unable to send in reinforcements to the garrisons on Luzon. |