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Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS By Edward C. Wayne Hitler Takes Over Personal Command Of German Army as Russia Continues 1 To Push Invaders Back on AH Fronts; Far East Battle Centers in Philippines (EDITOR'S NOTE When opinions are expressed In these columns, they are those ol the news analyst and not necessarily of thla newspaper.) , (Released by Western Newspaper Union.) HITLER: Inner Voice Explaining that he was answering an "inner call," Adolf Hitler took over sole command of the Nazi army because, he said, the Russian war had "exceeded all past notions." This meant that the former commander-in-chief. Field Marshal Walther von Brauchitsch, was out, as Hitler put it, because of "the vastness of the theater of war" and the manner in which military operations, opera-tions, economic and political war aims were linked. Berlin circles discounted theories from other world capitals that Von Brauchitsch was dismissed because WILLKIE: To Fore Again? i ..... .- C ! ' 1 f j i - I s, . s. j WENDELL WILLKIE Out in Front? The President, attempting to run the war again with an augmented cabinet which contained no less than 15 persons, was said to be contemplating contem-plating a supreme war council which would sit with him and under him prosecute the war. And the reports had been that Wendell Willkie, his 1940 opponent, might be a member of the group. This had been speculation since Willkie lunched with the President, and since a couple of other jobs that were open were not tendered to him. Those closest to the President believed be-lieved he had a most prominent place reserved in his mind for Willkie. Will-kie. In fact, informants as to the President's Presi-dent's plans named the following as probable members of a five-man board which would plan the war effort: ef-fort: Willkie. Rear Admiral Leahy, minister to Vichy, former head of the navy, former for-mer governor of Puerto Rico. Vice President Wallace, now also head of the SPAB which runs priorities. priori-ties. Philip Murray, head of the C.I.O. This time it was not the Italians, but the Germans, who were fleeing across the desert North African plains along the coast, with the British Brit-ish in hot pursuit. General Rommel's famous tank divisions, battered and broken, were jamming the roads toward Bengasi, chief German-Italian landing spot for supplies, having abandoned Der-na Der-na and all the hard-fought-over territory ter-ritory close to the borders of Egypt. MANILA: Major Thrust The good news from Russia and Libya had been rather offset by the discouragements and losses of the Far Eastern campaign, and it had become evident that the Japanese attack on the Philippines had been slowly but steadily growing in intensity. in-tensity. Then came the report that 80 transports of Japanese troops had been sighted off the coast between the port of Lingayen and Manila. These thousands of soldiers meant that the long-expected invasion of the Philippines was under way. U. S. land, sea and air forces then began their defense against this major ma-jor battle force of Japan. ' Lingayen was called by military experts the "gateway to Manila" and because of this a strong defensive defen-sive force was thrown into action to defend it. First reports told of the United States forces "holding their own." One unconfirmed report tqld of the sinking q at least one Japanese troop transport. A landing on Davao made the fourth spot in the islands on which the Japanese had gained at least a temporary foothold. The Davao landing became the j j I ; mmMsa ADOLF HITLER An 'Inner Voice Spoke. of the tie-up resulting from the Russian Rus-sian campaign. But Hitler did say that "the present war is now entering enter-ing upon a new and favorable stage for us. We are now facing a decision deci-sion of world-wide importance." Germany's task until spring, he pointed out, was to "hold and defend with fanaticism" what they had already gained. EVIDENCE: On Russian Front Both returning American newspaper newspa-per observers and dispatches from Berlin itself began to hurl the heavy weight of evidence back of the facts that Russia had been informing the world about the inroads the weather was making on German strength and ability to fight and as to the defeat the Nazi armies were suffer- potentially greatest menace against Manila, because it was on the nearby near-by island of Mindanao, largely inhabited in-habited by Japanese and Japanese sympathizers. A hotbed of fifth-columnist activity, activ-ity, Davao had been editorially called Davaochukuo before the outbreak out-break of the war, because Luzon dwellers regarded it as the chief fif th-columr thre'at. The landing there was believed to have been engineered with the aid of treachery from within. The American troops gave battle to the invaders, but no claims of immediate immedi-ate victory were made, and the landing land-ing was said to have been "in considerable con-siderable force." AIRMAN: Heads Navy After a week which had seen rapid shifting about of the American naval and army high command in SHORTAGES: Looming in U. S. In addition to the tire rationing which was imminent, and the tire prohibition which preceded it, the government saw other shortages looming in 1942. Among them, it was said, would be a shortage of electric power. Such a lack, it was declared, "seemed practically certain to 1942 and 1943" in some sections of the country, including in-cluding the Southeast, the Southwest, South-west, the Pacific coast and part of the Middle West. Householders were warned to be parsimonious in their use of electricity. elec-tricity. ' Blackouts of all non-essential lighting, including many store signs, were predicted. HONGKONG: 'Sacrificial' Hawaii, Washington had made a sudden sud-den move which made the supreme commander of the U. S. Navy Admiral Ad-miral Ernest J. King, an air officer. Previously the command of the Pacific and Asiatic fleets had been ing. Two Berlin dispatches had told, first in the Volkischer Beobachter, Hitler's own newspaper, that the "Russians are equal to us as fighters fight-ers and under some conditions superior"; su-perior"; and, second, that the German Ger-man soldiers were suffering terribly from the cold. The second instance was given to the World by Goebbels himself, in j opening a campaign, "house to house and apartment to apartment" to collect warm clothing, particularly particular-ly furs, for the men on the Russian front. Goebbels had said, in part: ' "We have done all to equip the army for winter. But winter came too early. Our soldiers will still lack much. "We must prevent German soldiers sol-diers from suffering the winter in Norway, Russia or elsewhere. "The front wants everything the Fatherland can give for defense against this winter which set in so early, earlier than usual." The American newsmen told of watching the German retreat, of the abandonment of materials, includ- ( ing tanks and guns as the Nazis fled i from their advanced Russian posi- ' tions back over the snow-packed roads. There had seemed to be no diminution of the Russian claims as I they added division after division to the list of "those annihilated." LIBYA: Bright Spot Another bright spot in the war reports re-ports had been the British North African campaign, which had suddenly sud-denly gone into high gear, and there began to be a repetition of the previous pre-vious British campaign, which swept across Cynenaica almost to the doors of Tripoli, and resulted in the taking of an estimated 100,000 prisoners. A band of British and Hindu and Canadian defenders of Hongkong were termed a "sacrificial garrison" in dispatches telling of the last-ditch fight to hold the island stronghold at the north end of the China sea. Chief hope of the defenders rested rest-ed on the Chinese, and oddly enough the Chinese were the chief menace to the defenders. Bearing out the former statement, the Chinese soldiers were driving southward from the East river, past Tamshui and Pingshan, within a few miles of the rear of the Japanese who had occupied Taipo and Kow-Ioon Kow-Ioon on the Hongkong mainland side. That this attack would be successful success-ful and divert enough Japanese power pow-er from the Hongkong front to change defeat into victory for the British was the chief hope of the defenders. Bearing out the second statement was the fact that several hundred thousand Chinese refugees from the mainland, having no other direction in which to flee, had gone over the half-mile of water to Hongkong, where they were jamming the already al-ready crowded island and seriously menacing supplies of food, water : and shelter. These refugees were regarded as ! almost equal in endangering the de- i fending garrison as were the Japanese Jap-anese guns and bayonets. SUBMARINES: Versus Submarines Almost simultaneously with reports re-ports from our navy of the sinking of at least two Japanese vessels by our own submarines, and the expressed ex-pressed belief that the navy was beginning the long process of blockading block-ading Japanese shipping came reports re-ports of attacks by Jap submarines on our shipping along the California coast. Three vessels had been reported "attacked, one escaping and one apparently ap-parently being bit, though the fate of the third was not at once clear. Two of them were oil tankers, the Emidio and the Agriworld. The latter vessel was said to have escaped es-caped and the former to have been hit and to have sent out an SOS. The navy was not telling the world where its submarines were moving about, but Japan admitted about "20 TJ. S. undersea boats" were operating operat-ing in waters close to Japan and that their shipping was being men- ADMIRAL STARK ' 'On the Shell?' placed in the hands of ship-minded officers, and the air arm had been believed to feel slightly "out of it." Jubilation reigned in the air force of the navy when Admiral King was placed in supreme command. The appointment had completed the shakeup and a rapid prosecution of the war in the Pacific under Admirals Ad-mirals Hart and Nimitz was expected. ex-pected. " As a matter of fact, many observers observ-ers wondered if the appointment did not place Chief of Operations Admiral Ad-miral Stark "on the shelf" for what duties remained to him were unspecified. un-specified. Formerly he had been regarded re-garded as the navy's supreme commander. DRAFT: Preparations for an army of 7,000,000 men were foreseen in the passage of the 20-44 draft act and its signing by the President Also, on the heels of the action on the bill came the prediction from army headquarters that by spring there would be established in the South 10 super-cantonments, for the housing and training of these men. "It won't be so pleasant for them as the present camps," the report said, "but we haven't time to bother abnut thqt now." |
