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Show Allies, Holding Offensive, ff Have Invasion Advantage p' 'Veritas Famed British Military Expert, mfT( j Sees Nazis Handicapped by Being Pinned Inside Defense Circle. 0$2p2L By BAUKIIAGE News Analyst and Commentator. WNU Service, Union Trust Building Washington, D. C. What happens when "the coiled springs of action" are released in the cataclysm of invasion? Europe is enveloped in the smoke and confusion of battle and only occasionally oc-casionally does this fog lift "showing "show-ing the swaying forms of vast armies ar-mies amid the screaming clatter of mechanized combat." It descends again "blotting out the view and leaving us uncertain as to the shape of the plan." That is the observation of one of the keenest British military experts, "Veritas," whose privately circulated circulat-ed analyses are cabled to this country coun-try and eagerly scanned by persons most interested In the conflict now going on. And Veritas reminds us that we can only maintain our sense of perspective and proportion if we keep carefully in mind certain fundamental fun-damental aspects of the military situation sit-uation from the German standpoint. This, likewise, applies to the political politi-cal aspects. A well-known psychologist, Dr. Norman Maier of the University of Michigan who predicted the failure of the Munich appeasement program by demonstrating in advance that according to psychological principles. princi-ples. It could not succeed, recently made some interesting observations. He said that Hitler would be liquidated liqui-dated and a revolution ' would take place in Germany as soon as the last of the "myths" created by the German propagandists for the purpose pur-pose of lulling the Germans into a false sense of security were exploded. explod-ed. The Germans, he explains, belong be-long to a "frustrated society." Hitler Hit-ler cured their frustration with aggression, ag-gression, when aggression Is frustrated, frus-trated, nothing else will be left. Revised Propaganda This type of "security" propaganda propagan-da being fed to the German people had to be revised recently. So much had been said about the strength of Nazi fortifications 'tht - the leaders realized the people developed what they called a "Maginot mind." In other words, they had become reassured to the point of complacency. compla-cency. Therefore, the more recent propaganda foreshadowed successful success-ful landings by the Allies and played up the second line of defense. For instance, it was stated that the city of Lyons was fortified to resist re-sist operations in case it became the center of the conflict (Lyons is 200 miles inland). Thus, the effort was made to preserve pre-serve the myth of security up to the last moment. As to the possibility of revolution before desperation seizes the Germans, that is slight It is probable that the Germans might oust the Nazis now if they dared; but it is doubtful if anything short of the sheer desperation following fol-lowing defeat will turn them against the guns of the black shirts. A Swiss who returned from Berlin just before the day and night bombing bomb-ing of Germany began, said: "There can be no thought of revolution. revo-lution. The Gestapo and the SS are too powerfuL" He recited this incident: "An Italian worker who was passing pass-ing through the Friederichstrasse was just about to pick up (after the bombing of a cigarette factory) one of the many boxes of cigarettes lying ly-ing around on the ground. Nearby was a young SS man armed with an automatic pistol . . . without any previous warning, he took aim and shot the Italian down." This is said to be a typical incident inci-dent and the Swiss declared that a German woman who drops her pock-etbook pock-etbook does not dare to stoop over and pick it up. The Military Aspects The military aspects are a very different matter. The great strength of German strategy built on "interior "in-terior lines" has been turned to a weakness. A nation on the offensive which can strike overpowering blows fit any point it chooses along the perimeter of the territory it controls con-trols has a great advantage. Its lines ar.e short, they are protected, pro-tected, they move from the center outward like the radii of a circle. The opposing power must laborious! ly follow the circumference witness the supply lines from the Allies to Russia which have to sweep around all of Europe to Murmansk or all around Africa to the Middle East. But interior lines become a weakness weak-ness when a nation goes on the defensive. de-fensive. As a matter of fact. Gen- eral von Clausewitz, who wrote one of the most authoritative books on strategy, said: "When you have to go on the defensive, de-fensive, it is too late to go on the defensive." When you do so, interior lines make it all the worse. Veritas comments on the position of the enemy In the present situation situa-tion as follows: ". . . the fact that he is inside a circumference which he must maintain main-tain is a deadly disadvantage because be-cause he is pinned down at every point on the circle, whereas his opponents op-ponents are free to exploit their latent la-tent advantages of exterior lines by hitting everywhere at once if they choose." Therefore in viewing the present situation in Europe we must bear these two factors in mind: First, the Nazis can hold down the revolution within until the Germans realize that their last myth of security se-curity is exploded. But second, the strategic position of the Allies, coupled cou-pled with their superiority in manpower, man-power, air power and amount of equipment, gives them a decided advantage. ad-vantage. Through the fog of the battle, the occasional glimpse we catch must be interpreted in the light of these fundamentals. Training for Farmers Recently, the Office of. Defense Transportation announced that public pub-lic vocational training schools in 190 cities throughout the country were turning over to the automotive industry in-dustry a "constantly increasing number of workers trained in one or more phases of automotive industry." indus-try." The United States Office of Education Edu-cation is sponsoring the automotive maintenance training program. They are trying to help fill the jap" in automotive maintenance personnel person-nel caused by the war. But what many people do not realize is that it is also conducting courses that directly touch the farm. Congress appropriated $12,500,000 for the food production war training program which the Office of Education Educa-tion administers. The minimum age limits for both out-of-school and in-school persons have now been removed' and all courses are now offered to urban as well as rural persons. Twenty-two courses are being offered of-fered in which the farmer is interested, inter-ested, and they run all the way from the operation, care and repair of tractors, trucks and automobiles to soil and water conservation. And besides the various handiworks in the mechanical line around the farm such as machinery repair, woodworking, wood-working, elementary electricity and construction of farm machinery and equipment, there are special courses in milk production, poultry production,' produc-tion,' eggs, pork, beef, mutton, lamb, wool, soybeans, peanuts and various commercial vegetable production. There is general training for farm workers, production of fruit and nuts, vegetable gardening and pretty pret-ty nearly everything that one has to know how to do around a farm, These courses are conducted through the cooperation of the public pub-lic schools and are responsible to the state board for vocational education. edu-cation. William T. Spanton, chief of the 1 division for vocational agriculture, says he believes that on a dollar-for-dollar basis, no appropriations made by congress to stimulate increased food production ' have contributed more to this end than has been true of the appropriations already made to the U. S. Office of Education for these specific vocational training programs. "Practically all of our 8,000 local departments of vocational agriculture, agricul-ture, scattered widely throughout the entire country," says Mr. Span-ton, Span-ton, "have available on the local school ground a well-equipped farm shop building where courses in farm machinery repair are given to farmers farm-ers and where, at the same time, their much-needed farm machinery and equipment can and is being actually ac-tually overhauled and repaired." |