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Show Germany's'MaginotMind' ! QJ May Hasten Nazi Collapse .f Axis Propagandists Fear Fortress Europa , U Concept May Backfire; If Allies Break p;' 'Impregnable' Line Morale May Crack, By BAUKHAGE News Analyst and Commentator. WXU Service, Union Trust Building Washington, D. C. Has Herr Goebbels created a "maginot mind" in his minions which will crumble and wreck German Ger-man morale just as the failure of the French defense smashed French morale? That is a question which the students of propaganda in Washington Wash-ington are studying with great interest in-terest today. Both external evidence newspapers, newspa-pers, broadcasts, public statements; and internal evidence reports of spies and neutral observers; reveal two things: one, that the Axis peoples peo-ples are extremely invasion-conscious; and two, that they are suffering suf-fering from a severe case of war nerves. But a third more serious possibility is developing. As a result of the "maginot mind," it is believed that a marked increase in the scope of the air raids, or even a minor success of a single invasion unit, might result in a complete breakdown of Axis morale. mo-rale. Realizing this, the German propaganda forces are working frantically fran-tically to change their previous verbal barrages based on the concept con-cept of the Fortress Europa, an utterly ut-terly impregnable defense system, back to the original German concept con-cept of the value and efficiency of a highly mobile, offensive force. Last year, when the second front talk reached its height, the German defense propaganda reached a high water mark too. Then when invasion inva-sion weather passed, the German defense talk died down to be renewed re-newed this past April. Everything was done by the Nazis to create the Idea that Europe was ringed by an unbreachable wall of steel, iron and concrete. Comparisons were made with the Maginot line; they said the guns in the Maginot line could traverse 180 degrees in the new German wall, they can swing around the whole 360 degrees. They said that the steel used in the construction construc-tion equals a bar which would reach from the earth to the moon the concrete would build a road from Berlin to the Solomon islands. Those Six Months That was the kind of fare the Germans and the Italians were served. Immediately after the fall of Tunisia, for instance, there was an Axis chorus which tried to sound exceedingly jubilant when it declared: de-clared: "Halleluja, we have held back the enemy successfully for six months, long enough to complete our fortifications, it is too late for an attack on our fortress now!" In recent weeks, however, with the growing attacks on German cities, cit-ies, the surrender of the Italian island is-land fortress to forces utterly indifferent in-different to walls of steel or concrete, con-crete, the German propagandists , have begun to realize that they went too far in building a faith in a wall that their propaganda is in danger of back-firing. They realize that if that concept is held, and if the Allies Al-lies make a landing at any point and break the wall, the civilian morale mo-rale will break with it. So the tune has suddenly changed. Now we hear that the shores of the Mediterranean are protected by a splendid mobile defense there is no south wall to Europe none is needed. need-ed. The European continent under German dominance is ideally equipped, far better equipped for offense against any invader who might get a foothold than the invader in-vader could possibly be; the difficulty diffi-culty of the Allied transportation across water is stressed, the power of the submarine is emphasized. But this about-face, according to observers here, has come pretty late and can hardly create much confidence con-fidence on the part of a nation which has had the myth of the Fortress Europa pounded into it for over a year. About the Luftwaffe There is another factor, of course, which is working against enemy morale; mo-rale; that is, the fact that the hardest hard-est blows now struck come from the air with the weapon which Italy exalted and which Hitler forged and put into effect in the form of his one-time invincible Luftwaffe. -. Meanwhile, what has happened to the Luftwaffe which some people have called the "vanished" Luftwaffe? We have heard much about it during dur-ing past months, but very little has been of a definite nature. Well, the paper strength of Germany's Ger-many's air force has been pretty well plotted from data obtained in confidential reports to Allied headquarters head-quarters here and abroad. This is what it looks like: A maximum overall, first-line German Ger-man force of between four and five thousand planes. (Even as I write, it is probably declining in numbers.) num-bers.) The whole is divided into five "Luftflotte" (airfleets) one of which, until the middle of June, was putting put-ting up a considerable offensive effort ef-fort on the northern Russian front. It is (or was) under General Keller and it may originally have been composed of 2,500 planes. That estimate esti-mate is questioned by some American Ameri-can observers. The second fleet under General Pesslering was in the Mediterranean Mediterrane-an area. It was estimated shortly after Tunisia as 800 strong but probably prob-ably soon thereafter was considerably considera-bly "wasted" and not very efficient because it was spread thinly over a long coast line with Italy as a weak link. The Remainder The third fleet was under General Gen-eral Sperle perhaps fifteen hundred planes with the tremendous and growing task of guarding the German Ger-man industrial area, the submarine ports all the way to the bay of Biscay Bis-cay and also the duty of meeting an invasion at any point along that long coast line. Then there was General Richtbo-fen's Richtbo-fen's fleet in southern Russia and General Stumpf's at the other end of the stick in Norway with what was left. Besides these fleets, or a part of them perhaps, were certain "Flieger korps" mobile units which attempted at-tempted to come to the rescue when some area was in dire distress. But the whole force, the experts believe, is spread so thin that in case of simultaneous air attack, great gaps have to be left which would make (and already have made) Allied air invasion safe and. as a corollary, would do the same for land invasion beneath it The Luftwaffe has not vanished. It is still a powerful weapon and the Germans are trying to maintain ' its strength by concentrating on the production of fighter planes. But the days when Hitler's evil angels darkened the skies and fortunes of Europe are over. Diary of a Broadcaster This "share-a-taxi" system Is really working out very well, but it requires quick thinking. I heard a very charming but disappointed young lady telling her tale of woe today. "I had to get to my dentist this noon and I stopped a cab with someone some-one in it The driver said he had to go to the Mayflower hotel first That was only a few blocks out of the way but I was in a hurry so I said "no." As the cab started off, I looked at the passenger. And was I sorry I said 'no' it was Wendell Willkie!" I thought: This "One World" isn't so small after all! We didn't realize how prophetic we were when we used to sing: "Yes, we have no bananas." I stepped into a Connecticut avenue ave-nue drug store the other day and asked for a chocolate milk shake. "No chocolate," said the clerk. An-other An-other customer ordered a bacon and tomato sandwich: "No tomatoes," said the clerk. Before anyone else could speak he said: "Now who's going to be smart an ask for a banana split?" Oh, we are learning to do without. with-out. In Washington the "without" sometimes seems as if it would include in-clude shirts and sheets clean ones, -anyhow. I met a dignified lieutenant lieuten-ant colonel early the other morning carrying his laundry box. Did he wear a shame-faced look? He did not. He was beaming. Anyone beams who is able to get his laundry laun-dry in time in this town. |