Salt Lake Telegram | 1941-01-18 | Page 6 | Nazis Planning Surprise Blow

Nazis Planning Surprise Blow METHODS of warfare have changed radically since the 1914 1918 Armageddon. Aerial y blitzkriegs, mechanized armies, fifth columns - are the innovations which get the headlines. But there is another fundamental difference whirh Is lets noticed but equally significant. The old war was a war of continuous battle fronts. It was, with very minor exceptions in Africa and Asia Minor, confined to Europe. Actually the 19141910 conflict was more a European war and this is more truly a World war. ' In the old style war, offensives on various pans of the land battle fronts which encircled Germany from the English channel through France, on the Italian front, in the Balkans and in the east, were disguised by feints in other parts of the battle line. For instance, if an at-lack at-lack was to be launched on the Verdun front, Germany would attempt to deceive and confuse the allies by feinting attacks near the channel and at other points along the extended European Euro-pean battle line. The same situation doesn't hold true today. There is no real land battle front. The fronts in Albania and Africa are not major theaters of land action in the titanic struggle , between Britain and Germany. The true battle fronts today are scattered all over the globe along the coast of the English Eng-lish channel and the North sea, in the north Atlantic, in Spain and France, in the Balkans and in the far east. They are true battle fronts even though the fighting in all these areas lsnvt done with bombs and guns, but often with diplomacy and pressure. But although the situation is different, the fundamental strategy of warfare remains the same to deceive and mystify the enemy so. that the final blow will catch him by surprise. That's exactly what Germany is trying to do today. On all this war'a battle fronts there are rumblings of conflict, threats of a new nazi blitzkrieg. Germany Is still marshaling her forces along the coasts of northern Europe threatening Invasion of England. German bombs have fallen on Ireland, forecasting the . possibility of a nazi blitzkrieg Invasion. Gor- ' man armies are massing in Rumania, threaten- - ing attacks on Turkey and the Dardanelles, or oh Greece through Yugoslavia or Bulgaria. There is renewed friction with unoccupied ' France, with the threat of German occupation of French Mediterranean bases. There is talk of a German-Spanish drive, on Gibraltar or Portugal. Por-tugal. There Is even new trouble being stirred up by Germany's ally, Japan, In the far east with a pocket war between Slam and Indochina. Indo-china. They're all feints that is all except one. "rhese hints of conflict everywhere, rumblings of war on all the widely scattered battle fronts of this world-wide conflict, are all designed to mystify and confuse Britain so that the blow when it comes will be as much as possible a surprise smash. That it will come with the spring seems certain, cer-tain, just as It came like a bolt out of the blue last year. But where it will come is another matter. That's the big advantage Germany has today the initiative. She can strike at will in a half dozen areas and Britain, still unready for a grand offensive, must be prepared to meet and parry that blow wherever it should fall.