Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS by edward C wayne clash between russia and germany speeds up pace of war in europe changing aspect of entire conflict british register new gains in syria 1 EDITORS NOTE when opinions are expressed in ID these columns they are re those of the news analyst and not necessarily of this newspaper 1 released by western newspaper union J t K 4 it M u A ADOLF HITLER JOSEF STALIN the best of 01 friends did part pars FLAME hits russia anxious eyes watched the beginning of actual war between those erstwhile partners of opposite political t faiths nazi germany and communist russia and once more the world war was making strange bed fellows americans who wanted britain to win win the war cheered loudly for the soviet which they had been condemning just a short time before by claiming that russia was responsible for defense strikes because russia wanted germany to win americans who had gone into their pockets to aid finland the victim of rotten russian aggression suddenly awoke to find finland according to hillers Hit lers word marching bravely hand in hand with the nazi soldiers against russia and some americans figured that in the battle between the worlds two leading dictatorships the democracies now practically boiled baile d down to the united states england and china had everything to win and nothing to lose their memories were able to hark back to the day when britain in in order to avoid war had endeavored to encircle germany by lining up france italy the balkans turkey and russia as allies it had been on august 24 1939 that russia had thrown this into the pot by the dramatic and sen sensational sa formation of an alliance with germany thus breaking the enair encirclement at a vital point and encouraging cou raging the nazis to move into poland but it was undeniable that when germanys germanas Germ anys march brought her to the balkans and down into greece that russia had made unfriendly diplomatic statements and overtures particularly in the case of and bulgaria observers did not forget that tha t churchill had told russia following the loss of the battle of greece you will be next the event bore out the prediction of the british premier and the event was not long coming in the german statements accompanying the declaration of war on russia it was stated that we gave russia half of poland most observers thought then and now that there was considerable surprise and not a little chagrin in nazi germany that russia had I 1 leaped ea ped in and captured half of the booty it was regarded as one of the cc signposts of discord that lined the almost two years of pathway that russia had traveled apparently hand in hand with germany there also was no question but that the visit of sir staff stafford ord cripps as envoy to russia was a recognition on the part of england that the regret over the alliance between the reds and the nazis was mutual the feeling was general that russia having observed having been inside the nazi military machine having learned lessons in the finnish campaign was beginning to feel herself strong enough to refuse german demands that it place its supplies and railway facilities under german control most certain it was that russia was not completely ready or it would have been her turn to declare the war and make the first move for there was no feeling that russia would have any scruples about treaty breaking in the demands that molotov was supposed to have made of germany with regard to finland bulga bulgaria i and the bases on the dardanelles Darda nelles and provided they were truly reported by von one could see that russia had self I 1 confidence needed for a fight also there was the angle that germany was being stymied in her effort to get aid to the near east that germany was stalemated stale mated in north africa that germay germany feared with the russian situation being what it was to start an invasion attempt against britain until her eastern door was safely shut DISASTER in air on sea while the war swept into its net new millions of combatants there were two disasters which while they involved only small numbers caused considerable comment and hit the front pages with a crash one was the dramatic sinking of the submarine 09 0 9 off portsmouth N H with some 30 odd navy lads aboard the other was the crash of a martin bomber at baltimore after what eyewitnesses called an explosion in midair mid air two died in this disaster relatives of victims of the 09 0 9 disaster fired verbal guns at the navy department for sending to sea for deep diving tests in feet of water a submarine the oldest in the navy which had been shown to be in leaky and poor condition when she was given her arst undersea tests after being re commissioned while mile salvage crews worked apparently patently ly vainly to bring the ship to the surface as the was brought up not so long ago once more the public wondered if perhaps sabotage might not have had a hand in the sinking it was the same with the huge bomber of the latest type it had been test flown for two hours on one e day for half an hour the next and then the army pilots both qualified experts who had flown several of the same ships before took off the speedy bomber sailed into the air air in in a normal climb both engines working perfectly suddenly there was a series of backfires back fires a huge cloud of black smoke poured from the ship and she nose dived into a woods killing both men one an army officer test pilot the other a civilian army inspector test pilot DAMASCUS oft the fall of damascus believed the worlds oldest city opened the british ro road ad to aleppo and thus forecast the near end of vichy troops resistance in syria whether the british occupation timed happily for them with ger banys severe occupation with the russians would be in such force that syria could be held and organized for capable defense in case the soviet gave up was a question many believed however that if russia put up a good defense and held the germans at bay somewhat after the chinese fashion of dealing with the japanese that the british move to a union with turkeys southern frontier might enable britain to give russia some aerial support in the ukrainian district the syrian campaign plus the holding situation in northern africa was giving the british a slightly more favorable outlook on the progress of the war provided russia was able to do anything more than france did in the way of defending herself against the nazis the fall of damascus saw a city of years history a city about which wars had raged for centuries once more conquered by an invader the th city was rich with biblical trad tradition for it was on the road from jerusalem to damascus that st paul had his vision and was converted to christianity BREAK thought near A complete break between the united unite states and the axis powers was believed to be close following several steps in aftermath to the sinking of the robin moor first au all assets of germany and italy were frozen and these countries responded in kind then all consulate employees were ordered out of the country germany and italy responded with the same move president roosevelt went to congress with a surprise special message in in which ugly names for the germans and the sinking of the moor were dotted throughout his statement the state department followed this up with a strong strongly ay worded note and so nothing remained by the thin thread of restricted diplomatic representation resen tation between the united states and the nazis and the fascists only this nothing more RAF A F smashing away though submarine losses continued heavy and german planes were still taking a toll of bf british shipping for once with germany occupied heavily on her eastern frontier brit ains airplanes found themselves able to make attacks at will on the invasion coast and on western germany as well day after day britain suffered only the most desultory of bombings fr from 0 m t the h e na nazi z i p planes 1 a n e s while while RAF squadrons q u aar adr 0 n s r reputedly e pu t e d 1 y numbering hundreds of planes many of them built in the united states went across the channel in waves dropping tens of thousands of pounds of bombs german dispatches admitted little damage but british observers claimed that the same sort of attacks were being made on germany as germany had made on england previously and that the huge casualty and damage list in england must be repeating itself now in germany and the occupied bases with the situation on the russian border what it was the RAF looked wl with th complacence across the channel and smashed away to its hearts content at nazi objectives the raids on the invasion coast were the simplest of all in fact RAF members pilots and gunners referred to raids on these ports as nursery raids in other words raids taken part in by the less experienced perien ced pilots as a part of their final training for bombing and combat the explosives were described as falling so thick along the coast that the british coast could feel the shattering of the explosions GUARD to stay in most news commentators and analysts felt when the national guard was inducted into the federal service that they would never get out after a years training this was predicated on the douwe double assumption that they would not be sufficiently trained in a year to permit them to return to civil civi 1 life and that second if the world cri crisis s is continued they would be needed to aid ai d in the training of tees both of these assumptions turned out to be correct when the war department part ment asked that americas guard men have their period of training extended the department sent the recommendation to the president and it seemed certain to be carried into effect only immediate question was er the president himself had r to order it or whether it must be submitted to congress but either way it seemed a certainty the move to keep the guard in training did not come as a surprise to the guardsmen guardsman Guards men themselves them selve for from time to time since they were first inducted it was a general topic of conversation and most of the men themselves felt that they were in for longer than a year perhaps for the duration the first reason given by the army was that the guard units now contained thousands of tees and that if the guardsmen guardsman Guards men were returned to civil life it would disrupt the entire organization of the army the guards were inducted from last september to february and the war department revealed that from being just a question of conversation now that the guardsmen guardsman Guards men were in midyear mid year of their training the question was being daily put to the department from thousands of men are we in for a year or longer the war department said the questions were right and proper for the citizen soldiers if they are going to be held in for much longer will have to make adjustments in their civilian affairs the tip off on how the prospects were came from representative wadsworth of new york who introduced the draft bill who said that congress would surely authorize another years training if the president requested it |