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Show 1 WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS By Edward C. Wayne Landing of U. S. Forces in Iceland Is New Move in Hemisphere Defense; Germany's Campaign Against Russia Gives British Chance for Air Attacks (Released by Western Newspaper Union.) -I I j I1! i J; trA f iJ jgf V' vi. During the Iraq rebellion and war, Americans stationed at the Iraq capital city of Baghdad prepared to defend themselves. As Old Glory is raised in the background men of the American legation staff start training drill with weapons furnished by British military mission commander. com-mander. But the British won this war before the Americans were called upon to defend themselves. ICELAND: Occupied by U. S. American naval forces have occupied oc-cupied Iceland to supplement and eventually to replace British forces there. This information was given congress by President Roosevelt, who explained that the move was taken "to forestall any pincers movement undertaken by Germany against tog Western hemisphere." The occupation was accomplished with toe full permission of the new Iceland republic which had declared its independence from Denmark in May. ON RUN: Or Defending? Crucial questions of the Russo-German Russo-German war were these: Did the Nazis actually have toe Russians in a wild-disorganized retreat? re-treat? Were the Russians, instead, falling fall-ing back to the Stalin line in good order considering the magnitude of their army? Was toe finish to be another defeat de-feat for toe defenders as soon as the large cities were taken, as had happened hap-pened in Norway, Belgium, Holland, France? Or were the Russians willing, like the Chinese, to move back across vast territory and let space and winter hardships swallow up the Nazi effort? None of these questions could be answered accurately through toe muddle of rival claims, yet there were hints here and there that tended tend-ed to show trends in attack and defense de-fense that might furnish a partial answer. The onslaught was terrific , and news pictures released by the Germans Ger-mans showed the advance across battlefields filled with backgrounds of smoke, flame and destruction. The speed could be counted at about 350 miles in two weeks the very distance not only pointing to the terrific ter-rific power of toe attack, but also to toe difficulty of maintaining a service serv-ice of supply and "mopping up" over so many thousands of square miles. So much tended to show the Nazis swift and easy victors. Yet there were other indications, entirely aside from toe official and biased communiques which bore on the eventual result and the theory of the Red defense. There were reports from Nazi-friendly Nazi-friendly Vichy and Rome. The former for-mer reported half the troops of occupation oc-cupation withdrawn to toe eastern front; the latter warned against expecting ex-pecting a swift and easy victory. The reports from Scandinavian sources of the evacuation of civilians from Leningrad and Moscow and Kiev; the speech of Stalin in which he urged toe "scorched earth" defense; de-fense; toe plans of Hitler to put Louis Ferdinand on the Russian throne all indicated that there might be a chance that the Russians Rus-sians were willing to drop back as slowly as might be, cede what cities and territory must be given up, and let the Russian wastes and toe impending Russian fall and winter win-ter eat up the strength of toe attacker. at-tacker. Few believed that the "Stalin line" would be anything but a stormy way-station for the German advance. ad-vance. But many believed that toe "Chinese plan" would not only stem the Hitlerian attack but eventually defeat it. BRITAIN: Her Chance The British were apparently keenly keen-ly aware that toe preoccupation of the Nazis with toe Reds on the East furnished them with their great chance of the war. Hardly had the attack against Russia been on for a week than the R.A.F. leaders announced mastery of the daytime air over the occupied regions and western Germany. Hardly did a day pass without large-scale daytime bombing raids, and the British plane losses did not appear great if, as the claim was made, they were using several squadrons of upward of 100 bombers each every day. There was a silence from German Ger-man sources about the accomplishments accomplish-ments of the raids, but the British, judging from their own losses from German air attacks, figured that their chosen objectives must soon be reduced to hopeless ruins. They felt that the Coventries on Europe's soil must be numerous. Heavy night attacks followed those by day, with only occasional and very light German reprisals and all of these under cover of darkness. dark-ness. On the sea, also, the British seemed to be making some headway head-way against the U-boat menace, and toe probability was felt that many submarines must have been 'diverted 'divert-ed to the Baltic, to serve against Russian vessels. MARSHALL: And Draftees Two vital questions on the home front were brought to the fore by General Marshall, chief of staff of the U. S. army: The keeping of selective service men past their 12-month training period. The question of sending them beyond be-yond toe United States and her possessions pos-sessions as "task troops." The chief of staff made his case plain. The army, he said, was composed com-posed of three elements regulars, national guardsmen, and draftees. These, instead of having been kept separate, were all melted into one military whole, and to remove a part of these, the draftees, at the end of 12 months, would be to create utter confusion in the whole organization, organi-zation, he said. He asked that the part of toe selective service law which limited toe time and place of the soldier's service be taken away. Otherwise, he pointed out, the power of the commander-in-chief would become a meaningless thing, and detachments needed at certain points would be forced to lose their manpower. But toe chief of staffs request, couched in such a way that it seemed an official request of congress con-gress by the war department, found considerable opposition, Senator McNary of Oregon, Republican leader, lead-er, stating that he was not only in opposition to the removal of the geographical geo-graphical restrictions in the draft act, but also was against toe removal re-moval of the 12-month restriction as well. It was evident that Marshall's hope for an army of 2,500,000 trained men, able to move wherever the congress and the commander-in-chief deemed expedient, was not going go-ing to be won without overcoming serious opposition. ARMY: Dive Bombing The army, which has relied on lofty bombers with an efficient bomb-sight, and low-flying attack planes to machine-gun infantry positions, po-sitions, finally decided it was unwise un-wise to let the navy do all the dive-bombing dive-bombing and was reported about to get some dive-bombers of its own and start practicing the art. The navy developed dive-bombing to hit fast-moving ships which were difficult dif-ficult targets for high flying bombers. The rapid development of tank and mechanized warfare has made land targets bigger and still more difficult to hit, hence the "strafing plane" is now declared obsolete, while the dive bomber is coming into its own. Another factor reported from those close to high authority is that the army's planes must be responsible responsi-ble not only for inland defense, but for defense some 300 miles off the American coastline. Hence the army as well as the navy will have to equip its planes to bomb naval vessels. MISCELLANY: Ottawa: There was evidence of a new political outcry in Canada for some form of draft or selective service serv-ice to take the place of voluntary enlistment, still in force in the Dominion. Do-minion. Washington: The White House confirmed the fact that Colonel Donovan, Don-ovan, after two unofficial tours of inspection of Europe's war centers, would be given a post of importance in the defense set-up. Washington: Aluminum, cork and copper, in that order, were declared to be the scarcest materials needed in the defense effort. Philadelphia: The American Youth Congress, reversing its former position posi-tion on aid to Britain, urged full aid to the British following the entrance en-trance of Russia into the struggle overseas. Washington: A defense industry step-up of 16 per cent was forecast after many industries abandoned their idle week-ends, and began lengthening their eight-hour days to 10 hours. |