Show washington WA N S oiw FROM OUR congressman MAN W K GRANGER GRAN recently major general george V strong assistant chief of staff appeared before an executive session of the house and gave information concerning the strength of the ax is powers this information is now made public with relatively minot mino deletions for military security general strong praised the fighting qualities of our armed forces and stresses the fact that we have made material gains and they do not in the least reflect anything but fin final al victory therefore the things he points out are the worst things that we might expect to meet it is true that a small portion of territory held by the japanese in the south and southwest pacific have been wrested from their control it is a fact that the russians have retaken large portions of the territory captured by the germans but it is also a fact that more than half the territory taken by the axis powers in their victorious advances still remains in their hands and there is no evidence that german military power has materially decreased and there is no sign that japanese troops have lost any ol 01 their willingness to fight and die in defense of japan in any remo remote ze outpost in both the europea annd asiatic theaters great forces of well trained enemy troops well led well equipped are ready to fight us germany dominates europe she controls a population of some million and draws upon practically the whole of Eu ropes industrial and economic resources she faces us with more than well trained divisions she has millions of loreign foreign workers in her war industries germany began total mobilization of her manpower and material before the war started in june 1939 there were 23 million persons engaged in war industries today there are 35 million A complete picture of germanys germanas Germ anys manpower potential can be obtained only if the entire population under german icon control troll some million which gives an available labor supply of approximately million is considered as contributing in some measure at least to the german war effort last winter germany lost 20 divisions in russia and more recently lost 8 divisions in africa these 8 divisions have been replaced with new divisions armed with the latest and most modem equipment the 20 divisions lost in russia have also been replaced germany air force germanys germanas Germ anys air force has become the weakest point of the german forces in europe there is no question but what the germans have lost many of their best pilots and aircraft during tle the first six months of this year germanys germanas Germ anys air production tio rose approximately 25 per cent during that time despite their losses the germans were building up a surplus of planes it is true that since july losses have exceeded production although germany does not have the reserves in pilots or aircraft they did have in 1939 it should be remembered that the german air force is a p powerful military organization iza tion steel and coal germanys germanas Germ anys position in steel and steel production is excellent in 1933 germany had steel production of 29 tons she now controls resources with a total production of 42 million tons the main resource of german industrial strength is in her tremendous coal production in 1942 germany produced million tons while axis europe as a whole produced almost double that amount this compares with the total of million tons of coal for the U S rubber oil transportation germany is nearly half sufficient in rubber through great increases in synthetic rubber production which is growing rapidly and will soon meet almost all german germa n requirements of thousands tons of rubber per year although her oil stocks have decreased german germany Y today after four years of war is atle able to produce or import more trian enough oil to meet her requirements she is faced with a shortage of certain types of oil and lubricants but she has enough high octane gasoline for her air forces there is much evidence to believe that the german railroads and transportation networks are functioning efficiently and smoothly it is interesting to note the present german production of locomotives is now ahead of am production FOOD we have been told of the th poor starving germans aad how much they are suffering it is true we have not heard much about that recently but as 4 a matter of fact ger banys food problem is far better than it was in the last war the present diet of the german worker in heavy industry and the soldier are higher jn in caloric content than it il was at the outbreak of the wan the two foodstuffs that declined most mosi i in germany are meats and fats crop prospects for the 1943 year are good cultivated acreage in only I 1 Y slightly below prewar pre war levels this years harvest will surpass any crop output since the war start started ed 0 |