Show ys enemies stalemated Stale mated after af ter 6 months because defense def ense outshines Out shines offense of f ense by H V kaltenborn noted radio commentator T THE end of the first six amontis AT months of war we find that the major belligerents have not yet begun to fight while the major neutral powers have begun to fight for peace small wonder that the late senator borah called this a phoney war only in finland is there a major military effort and mighty soviet russia does not even admit that she has gone to war against little finland when the war began no one expected soviet russia to participate in military operations and no one expected finland to be invaded on the other hand everyone expected an immediate air raid by hundreds of bombing planes on the capitals of europe and for weeks the headlines spoke of the coming big offensives on the maginot and siegfried lines neither the raids nor the offensives developed during the first half year of fighting why defense Is major factor the primary reason is that in modern war defense is stronger than off offense ense the war in spain showed the world that air attack on large cities is tremendously destructive tive but it also showed that it is not likely to be decisive the expense in in planes fuel bombs and aviators who do not return is apt to offset the military advantages gained in any mass bombing flight and the effect on neutral opinion of the killing of thousands of women and children together with the destruction st of historic monuments in cities far away from any actual acqua I 1 fighting zone might well be disastrous the fear of such wholesale air raids led france and britain to surrender at munich now after a year and a half of additional intensive preparation for air defense they no longer fear german attack they are prepared to meet it and could make it so costly that it would probably not be repeated the successful defense of the mannerheimo Man line against the most highly concentrated soviet military effort showed the strength of defense fortifications in modern war why poland was weak the two great surprises of this war so far have been polands bolands Po lands weakness and Fin lands strength po lands weakness arose from a lack of national unity and domination of the illiterate masses by an aristocratic caste in the larger sense the government of poland was nei ther popular nor efficient the finnish people are literate sturdy and possess a strong sense of social and political independence just as the failure of polands bolands Po lands defense plan undermined morale the success of Fin lands well organized plan of defense has given tremendous encouragement to the army the people and the government but the success of the german blitzkrieg against poland and the failure of dussias Rus sias blitzkrieg against finland depended primarily on the daffe difference r between the attacking armies the german army was well organized well equipped well directed the russian army is poorly organized poorly equipped and suffers from bad generalship western lines invulnerable already Fin lands mannerheimo Man line has withstood an overwhelming russian assault for more than three months it is apparent therefore that the much more completely organized and much deeper maginot and siegfried lines would be similarly invulnerable to attack and aher whereas aas russia has a superiority of something like 20 to I 1 against finland the forces lined up on both sides of the french frontier are lk Y 21 p BRITAIN GUARDS THE SEA somewhere in the north sea a multiple antiaircraft anti aircraft gun aboard a british mine sweeper watches for enemy raiders practically equal in fighting strength in considering the progress of this war we are too much inclined to dwell on military factors yet during this first half year the military front has been less important than the diplomatic front and the economic front there has even been a more continuous exchange of ammunition on the propaganda front than between the fighting armies themselves radio and loudspeaker systems have made it possible for belligerents to talk to one another incessantly directly on the fighting lines or indirectly through the air waves nazi leaders are apprehensive about casualties in the propaganda battle they impose severe punishment on anyone who listens to a foreign broadcast the british and french on the other hand have enough confidence in their people to permit them to listen ta whatever dr goebbels orders said more activity on sea at sea a war of movement has been possible this is why there has been much more activity at sea than on land britaina Brit ains control of the sea has again demonstrated its importance the german fleet is bottled up except for submarines the german navy and the german merchant marine have been swept from the seas the near eastern franco british THE AUTHOR ff V kaltenborn attained eminence in the radio news field during the european crisis last autumn when his frequent and accurate reports W over the columbia network were awaited each day by millions of listeners A native of wisconsin he worked many years on the brooklyn eagle before entering the radio news field as a sideline in 1922 for more than 39 years he has been a keen student of international politics a background which makes his extemporaneous analyses over CBS among the most accurate heard by the american audience today his famous broadcast from a haystack in spain is the first radio description of actual on record during last autumns crisis he literally lived at the CBS S studios in I 1 new york prepared to go on the air at a moments notice army of half a million men under the leadership of general is now waiting in syria ready for instant action against russia or germany in any part of the balkans this army may yet prove the decisive military factor in this war allied victories in palestine and turkey presaged the collapse of the central powers in 1918 germanys germanas Germ anys commerce raiders were swept from the seas much more quickly than during the world war the graf spee lies wrecked in montevideo harbor after being put out of action by the combined efforts of three small british cruisers the deutschland Deutsch land her sister pocket battleship thought it best to return to a safe german harbor nazis stress U boat warfare but raiding with surface chis is a minor factor in Germ germany anys a sea warfare against britain and france the germans remembered how close they came to forcing a decision with their submarines during the world war they had from 60 to 75 submarines ready when the war began for the first few weeks of the war they used these to excellent advantage then the protective measures mea suret which britain developed during the world war and since became effective the larger ships were sent out in convoy airplane patrols were created minefields mine fields against submarines rines were established and all the resources of the british navy were mobilized against the U boats on the whole they have proved effective in six months the british have lost tons of merchant ships at the same time the french lost tons and the neutrals tons this makes a total of a little over tons losses not important but nothing in these losses produced by mines and submarines even suggests the possibility of a decisive result the british merchant marine alone totals tons the british claim that deducting from their losses purchases and new construction their net loss in six months of warfare has b been een less than tons it is also probable that the losses will decrease rather than increase since at sea as well as on land defense is proving itself stronger than attack already submarine torpedoes are far less successful in destroying shipping than mines the new magnetic mine sown by the germans proved very destructive for the first few weeks in which it was used then more effective mine sweeping methods and the establishment of narrow ship channels which were carefully patrolled reduced the successes of germanys germanas Germ anys mine laying airplanes british also unsuccessful on the other hand the british have been no more successful in their raids against the german navy both german and british submarines have destroyed an occasional cas ional warship but these forays have been costly to the submarines attempting them the british and french claim to have sunk between 40 and 50 german submarines since the beginning of the war the germans admit the loss of less than half this number yet whenever a submarine submarine is is lost the entire crew is is lost with it and it takes five years to train men to handle a submarine under war conditions talk about the germans building one submarine a day is nothing more than talk it is more likely that the germans are completing anywhere from six to ten U boats a month which is just about the rate at which they are being destroyed already planning for peace there is then nothing decisive in action at sea or in the air defense is stronger than attack but what about the economic front that is probably the most important front of all and the one that will be dominant long after the war has ended already secretary of state hull is negotiating with the neutral powers to work out a plan of eco economic econome nomi reconstruction the plan must be bd ready for instant application on the he day of the armistice if europe is not to sink in to chaos when the fighting ends E every very country in europe neutral and belligerent alike has mortgaged Us its future only if the new world remains out of the war and stands ready to lend its resources for european reconstruction is there any hope of true peace europe was ready for revolution before the war came and will be much more ready for it when the war is done released by western newspaper union |