| Show Round Merry By DREW PE PEARSON and ana ROBERT ROBERT S. S ALLEN SALLEN W WASHINGTON U. U. U S S. S military and naval strategists have been making some secret studies of British and French strength against the dictator dictator dictator dic dic- powers and their conclusions have been pessimistic Although the French and British are e in better better better bet bet- ter shape than during the Munich crisis they are arc a long way from being able to box Hit Hitler er In fact ct it il looks a f Hitler r can box o them i Britain and France have Jwo wo big assets the assets the I f greatest ie s navy in the world and n Ith best trained trained iriny army in the world But th blem is how to b be use IV e them 11 army anny for ins instance ance is up against a tough ough proposition if it tri 1 help Poland T The e logical move would woul be tr Germany s shift Germanys Germany's drive fr to a de defense de- de tense of the fatherland T f 0 But the French army is sf stymied by the Ger- Ger iman Siegried line built Maginot line The Siegfried line is cheaper than the line consisting of concrete pill boxes spaced at regular intervals These are so small wat it is almost impossible for lor artillery to hit them but they house machine gun nests capable down the French army Between the pill boxes boxes' are are buried electric min mines s which can be exploded under advancing French troops at the touch of a button France Frances vs s Italy v Another natural move f for the French would be to drive into northern northern- Italy However France now has to keep 10 lOper lOoper per cent of her army along the Spanish border thanks to Franco appeasement and this lea leaves es only 25 per c cent nt of the French army to oper operate te against Italy This is not enough to insure victory Furthermore the northern Alps now are better better bet bet- ter fortified and a new Siegfried line has been erected in Italy under German Gennan supervision Even if the French should break break- breakthrough through Hitler Hit Hit- ler Jer has taken the precaution of placing his own divisions behind Italian troops so as to avoid too much risk on Italian resistance In addition France will have a tough time defending her own borders in north Africa where Italian troops already are concentrated against Tunis British Fleet tf i Secret strategy of th the Brit h fleet fleetis Is to sail saU through gh the straits between n D Denmark and Swe Swe- d into den h int th the thc Baltic where it it oula come to the aId of Poland by attacking th co coast t of Prussia 4 This would be easier easie q now 10 than during the World war var because iq i the e German an fleet fled to toda today to- to da day is far smaller Eve 0 such a voyage might lead to the bottling up or even destruction destruction destruction tion of the entire British Worth North sea fleet a risk which few cabinets would woul ca cao take tak e. e Polish Dilemma If f you want to see what the he Poles Potes are up against take out the map of northern Europe and in the little corner comer of East Prussia between Poland and thet ilie Baltic mark down the number TT That is k the approximate number of troops Hitler has placed nO tl Poland to enforce his squeeze play Q r 1 Then directly west mark down 51 divisions of crack Germ German n i troops koops ops or about men They are drive across the Polish corridor South South- of Poland in what wha once was friendly Slovakia Czecho mark on th the map an additional me men In 1 other ther words Poland Is almost surrounded with German Germas troops troops north north west vet and south In the middle of Poland write down the figure fig fig- ure which is the strength of the Polish army It is a determined army but it is fighting fight fight- ing lag against the lightning mobility of the Ger Ger- mans All AU around Poland Hitler has built bunt a series of lane five-lane highways They converge upon the Polish border from every direction and form a means by which German troops moving by truck can vary the attack with lightning speed Meanwhile the Poles transporting troops chiefly by railroad arc are far less mobile Distributed by United Feature Syndicate |
