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Show Nazi Submarine Menace (7 Is Allies' Chief Problem ' , : ' " A Pre-Fabricated U-Boats Said to Boost Ger- f'f, j man Output; 'Vanishing Luftwaffe' Puzzles r ' hf 4 United Nations' Military Observers. ' f ' .,- By BAUKIIAGE ' ( News Analyst and Commentator. - think that this, at least to a large degree, is true. But that explanation explana-tion does not seem reasonable. German Advances In Synthetic Gas We know that Germany nas made remarkable advances in the manufacture manu-facture of synthetic gasoline and oils. We know that some oil has been retrieved from the Maikop oil fields in Russia, new ones developed in Austria. If Germany is not yet starved of gasoline and lubricants, if the Luftwaffe Luft-waffe has not really disappeared from the earth, its absence from the air may have another meaning. We know that in spile of the heavy German Ger-man losses in men and material in Russia, Germany still has. a large and powerful army. ' Possibly over 300 fully equipped divisions trained men. It is estimated that aside from soldiers engaged., in Russia and North Africa, the garrisons in the occupied countries, there must be a striking mobile army of a million men and more. Of course, thesa are estimates but they are not over- WNU Service, 1343 II Street, N.W. Washington, D. C. "It will bea long and bitter war." That was the remark of the Australian Aus-tralian minister of defense in a recent re-cent interview. Two days later, I heard a general, who had visited many fronts, make a similar statement. state-ment. You have heard the same prediction made from dozens of officials. offi-cials. And the strange thing is, it is usually preceded with an account of Allied successes. Nothing but a "but" stands between the enumeration enumera-tion of victories achieved and the prediction of the long, hard road ahead. Since this perplexed me, I tried to get a concrete answer from vari-' vari-' ous persons as to just what lies on " the long, hard road. Out of the an swers, two obstacles stand out, the submarine and the story of the "vanishing "van-ishing Luftwaffe." Only recently has it been definitely revealed that the enemy's greatest and most effective weapon is the submarine. For a long time, the British permitted only the most general statements regarding regard-ing the sinking of Allied or even neutral ships by U-boats. Lately, because it was realized that the peo- estimates. And besides this army there is the "vanished Luftwaffe." The assumption is that this great army like the airforce is resting, conserving and building - up its strength for one of two things: either ei-ther a long, last stand defense of the borders of the Reich or one more powerful offensive. Meanwhile, we know that every day that Japan is allowed to occupy the rich possessions of her stolen empire, she is nearer to the exploitation ex-ploitation of their resources, the development de-velopment of which will make her stronger. And every day she is left undisturbed by a major attack, she is able to increase her fortifications, wear down the Chinese and spread her "silver bullets" among the less loyal war-lord followers on the fringe of Chiang Kai-shek's central army. There are two factors which make the road ahead a hard one the present pres-ent successful operation and the rapid replacement of the German submarine flotilla and the probability probabili-ty that Germany is holding back a powerful army and air force either for another telling blow or to defend de-fend its strongly fortified terrain. Ideologies Put Them on Ice? pie were in ignorance of the extent of this menace, more detailed statements state-ments have been made, although still no figures are given out. We know that America is building ships faster than American ships are being sunk. We know that the margin between launchings and sinkings is very narrow. And we know that launchings alone do not really balance sinkings hull for hull because the enemy sinks loaded ships valuable cargoes are destroyed de-stroyed trained men not easily or immediately replaceable are killed or at least taken out of action for long periods gaps are left in the war effort with each lost cargo. When I was in Berlin covering the outbreak of the European war in 1939, I heard a great deal of talk about Germany's counter-blockade, how the Nazis could fill seas with their U-boats. There was much talk of the great numbers which could be produced by the American method meth-od of the assembly line. I had no idea how much truth there was in those statements. Then in the months that followed, not much was said about the U-boats. For a period pe-riod when they were operating on our coasts, America was conscious of their presence but when they were driven out of sight of our shores, they were driven out of mind as well. As I go wandering round the town taking a look in every quarter with apologies to Wan -Eyed Reilly I have acquired data in the last few days that have convinced me that ' we will have to expunge the word ideology from the bright lexicon of war, if we are going to win. I have observed three places where the ideologies have gotten in and done more damage than a buffalo buf-falo moth in an overstuffed sofa. " Of course in North Africa it may be the climate or the rainy season ideologies have "done some of their -most devastating work. I have conversed con-versed with an army officer, an official, offi-cial, who knows that terrain and also what it produces, a newspaper philosopher and " a - radical all of them look at the situation on the shores pf the. Mediterranean .a lit-1 lit-1 tip differently.' The official explains-that explains-that tha politics ara! ivery irripor-" tant the radical, happy over the success against all Fascists! hut' in-', furiated over using 'them .even to help defeat' themselves, shouts "We should have shot Darlan the ' day after he served his purpose.' "Well," remarks the official, "somebody "some-body did, didn't .they.?". The-army 1 officer calls the whole controversy, ' a "backyard row that will be. forgot-ten forgot-ten as ground dries np and the Al-'i lies get a. few victories. ; : . But One correspondent philosopher paused to analyze. . ; He said: "You have" heard that one thing that greatly improved the morale in the Russian army was making the officers supreme and removing re-moving the authority - of the commissars com-missars which were originally placed at their elbows. You know the Russian officers could make no move without the okay of the commissar com-missar and yet the officer was responsible re-sponsible if anything went wrong. Now, the officer has the Gnal word many of the former commissars who had military training have become officers. ( r Nazi Boasts Largely Confirmed Now we learn how great their depredations dep-redations are on the shipping lanes where they converge in the eastern Atlantic, confirming to some degree the German boasts which are sounding sound-ing again. It is stated by British naval observers that the Germans are pre-fabricating the subs, making mak-ing the parts in factories scattered all over the Reich and assembling them in great underground caverns hewn out ,of the rock or covered with concrete on the shores of the Bay of Biscayin 'France. . - Therein lies a clear and simple explanation of the Allies' greatest problem, the chiei obstacle on the "long, hard road." '. The second obstacle may be a fancied one but it is real ' in the minds of many. The unknown is usually more terrible - than the known and. perhaps this one is ;at least partly a myth but no hard-headed hard-headed realist can afford- to under? ' estimate the enemy's potentialities: Those who believe this "obstacle" exists, say it is hidden behind the mystery of "the vanishing Luftwaffe." Luft-waffe." According to military men, there are at present very few German-planes German-planes on the Russian front I heard a recent estimate of one-seventh as many as a year ago. There are not many German planes ever Africa the Allies have at least achieved parity in air power. pow-er. Where is the German Luftwaffe? Its presence darkened the skies of Europe once has it really vanished? van-ished? Ben used up? Worn out? The factories which turn out replacements re-placements all destroyed by Allied bombers? Is its necessary fuel and lubrication exhausted? Some people |
