Show Britain Plans to Knock Italy Out of the War First Italian Defeat Would be Staggering Blow to Axis The British haven't announced it officially according to the international major British strategy now is to knock Italy out of the That explains the many observing and trips the Royal Air Force has been making over Italian The British haven't begun to shoot the works as They arc increasing the severity of their attack on Italy slowly and and it may be spring before the assault reaches full It is obvious that this strategy is Italy has definitely proven herself the weak point of the in the opinion of practically every military There seems to be an astonishing lack of morale on the part of the mill run of Italian The large Italian navy has shown a strange disinclination to and Italian detachments have actually run at full speed for home when confronted by English squadrons of inferior speed and And Hitler has so far hesitated to give Italy a help ing and has let Mussolini stew in the bitter Greek juices of his own It may be that Germany is so far spread out due to the various Axis in middle that Hitler simply cannot spare tho troops and equipment that would be necessary to saving Italy's Italy Backs Down Tone of recent Italian press comment is When Italy invaded the papers all took it for granted that the affair would be over in a of weeks at the Now Italian editorial writers are talking about a long The official army have lost their past boastful They say and attempt to gloss over the staggering Italian And rumor has it that a considerable proportion of the Italian people who never wanted and who dislike Germany far more than they dislike England are getting tired of tho way things are From the British point of Italy is fairly soft Her industrial capacity is largely concentrated in the Milan which is similar in terrain to our own Middle Western plains enjoys good weather most of the and so is easy to The Italian air force is large in but small in skill and Don't be if you read before long of British air raids of almost unprecedented intensity over the Milan and Turin Britain Obtains Bases As this column has pointed out tho Greek war has been giving England a chance she would not otherwise have had to obtain naval and perhaps submarine bases on the Greek These bases provide an almost perfect starting and supply point for action in the Reports now say that large British naval detachments are roaming the their object being to ferret out and destroy Italian naval as England Italy should the blow to Germany would be Hitler would lose more than a partner of dubious courage and He would take a terrific beating in prestige in the small countries ho has forced into his grandiose It is undoubtedly true that Bri-tan depends on opposition within these countries to help her win the Germany's policing problem is one of the most difficult in You can't shoot all And one man in a trained in could disrupt production for It has lately been reported that England is starting a secret sabotage system in central Interesting sidelight on British plans is provided by a report that an English purchasing agent recently came to this country with orders for monster tanks the Told that such implements of war would destroy British he replied that they weren't designed for use m Obvious implication is that Britain is already laying plans for eventual invasion of the German-dominated |