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Show SenaforsSee NaziCollapse 'Any Time-War's End in f45 Cumulative Effects of Defeats on All Fronts, Plus Bombing of Cities, Expected to Hasten German Defeat. By BAUKIIAGE News Analyst and Commentator. r ,r "j f -'Mil- L .'asE- WNU Service, Union Trust Building, Washington, D. C. "It is my guess that the war will end by 1945," the senator said. "The collapse of Germany may come any time." Pencils slid over copy paper. Mine, too. We sat around the long, green, committee-room table in the Senate Office building. Other press and radio men (and women) and a few visitors listened to the three senators who had made a 40,000-mile 40,000-mile trip beginning in Maine, up through Nova Scotia, through Greenland, Green-land, Iceland, Great Britain, Africa, the Near East, India, China, Australia, Aus-tralia, the Pacific islands, and back home. I thought as I took down the notes for my broadcast that I wished many of the people who write to me, calling congress dumb, were there to listen to these men regaling us with first-hand information, facts, figures, impressions, which later they were to pass on to their colleagues col-leagues in the form of long and detailed de-tailed reports. Much of the material will never be printed. The trip was spoofed by the papers, pa-pers, when it was proposed, as "another "an-other junket." But sitting there, listening lis-tening to these men, there was no doubt in my mind that they had done a real job. They had slept in gaudy villas in Africa, they had camped In the fields with the troops, lain un- - der thatched roofs, in bamboo shelters, shel-ters, taken their chances across wide sweeps of water in planes unaccompanied unaccom-panied by any fighter protection. They had tried to find out the things you and I want to know how the war is being fought. Reasons Why You have already read the gist of what those senators and Senator Lodge, who made the journey, plus a side trip said. The information will come out in reports and speeches before the senate and the house. It was a long session but the thing that struck me was the second sentence which I quoted at the beginning be-ginning of this article. "The collapse of Germany may come at any time." These men didn't pretend to be - military experts or prophets. That statement of one of them Senator Russell of Georgia to which the others, Senators Mead of New York and Brewster of Maine, agreed, was based on what they had heard and seen including photographs of what Russell called "leveled Hamburg" ... by the time this is in print there may be other German cities leveled as flat. Another thing was the testimony of a French official who believed Germany Ger-many would crumble soon. He was anxious that America be prepared to step in and take control. Unless we did, he insisted, chaos would "The army air forces," says the general, "are now attacking the enemy en-emy on ten different fronts throughout through-out the world. Their victories, wherever they come in contact with the enemy, testify to the gallantry and skill of American pilots and crews, to the mechanical efficiency of the planes and to the leadership of General Arnold and . . . (the other commanders)." History of the War Go through General Marshall's dramatic history of the war to date and you will see again and again how the Allied air might has gradually gradu-ally risen' from the days in the "first phase" when, as the general says, "on all fighting fronts we were in a desperate situation due to lack of material," into the "later phase" when In the southwest Pacific, Pa-cific, "air superiority was demonstrated demon-strated by a loss ratio of four to one in our favor," until today when "the combined American - British bomber offensive against the continent conti-nent of Europe gives promise of being be-ing a decisive factor in the ultimate destruction of the German citadel." Now that the Allies are in possession posses-sion of the Foggia air bases in Italy, we can reach what the President described de-scribed as the area of Germany hitherto "invulnerable." We are nearer the southern German cities ' now than the air force in the British Isles is to many of the cities against which it has hurled its most devastating devas-tating blows, and those cities 'of southern Germany and Austria, hitherto "safe" are now as "vulnerable" "vulner-able" as the cities of the Rhine and Ruhr, as Hamburg and Cologne. The war is not over. The fighting potential of the German army, in number of men, equipment, generalship, general-ship, supplies, and morale'is as high as ever. But as I sat in the Senate Office building and heard the prediction, pre-diction, "the collapse of Germany may come at "any time," my mind went back to the anxious faces, the nervous inquiries, that came to me the day that Britain and France declared de-clared war and I waited to leave Berlin where I had been broadcasting broadcast-ing to America. The greatest fear of the average German then was the. fear of American Amer-ican participation in the war. We couldn't, the stupid leaders believed, "get there in time if we wanted to." They didn't guess we would come via the skyways. Now they know. (Note: To anyone wishing a complete com-plete copy of the "record which Americans will never forget," which is what the President called "General "Gen-eral Marshall's fine, soldierly record rec-ord of achievements of our army throughout two of the most tremendous tremen-dous years of our history," I shall be glad to send a copy. Simply send me your name and address. No charge. See address at head of column.) spread, perhaps anarchy. I have heard that fear expressed by other Europeans. Basis of Belief What is the basis of the belief that Germany will collapse suddenly and perhaps soon? On the belief ' that history will, in some measure, repeat itself as it always does. That the civilian morale will crumble in Germany, that the spirit of hopelessness hopeless-ness will spread to the army as it did in 1918. Already we know that submarine crews no longer volunteer. They . have to be drafted. This is where the rift began in Germany's morale in the last war. And what will contribute most to . Germany's collapse? Not the Russian victories alone; not the drive that will come when, as many believe, the British-American operations are intensified. These will turn the scale. But the cumulative effect of defeats on all fronts plus the bombing of her cities already at work will bring "victory through air power." The Germans, a very high British official said to us not long ago, are a logical people. When the realization realiza-tion of the hopelessness of further fighting is established, they will begin be-gin the logical process of surrender. And if you read the report of Chief of Staff General Marshall, you will see how the realization of the growth of Allied air power spreads slowly over the whole battle scene, i We Need Scrap The words "all out" and "drive" have just about lost their meaning. And yet, somehow, somewhere, iron and steel scrap has to be collected. col-lected. There is plenty of it in the country. For the government to collect col-lect it, it would take an army. Tere is only one way it can be gotten. That is through individual effort It involves no cost. It simply requires a little effort and some time. The mills now have only enough scrap to last two and a half months. The shooting has just started, uncountable un-countable tons of metal are going to be dropped on the enemy in the months ahead. If you wait for someone some-one else in your community to come and get your scrap, the army and the navy won't get the steel they need. Your initiative is essential. e Civilian Awards The war department has borrowed an innovation of private industry as well as one of the pioneers in developing develop-ing this idea. Ezra S. Taylor of the Pullman Company, Chicago, 111., will operate it. Mr. Taylor has been appointed expert ex-pert consultant to the secretary of war and is chairman of the department's depart-ment's new board on civilian awards. The board has been set up to increase material economies and generally improve efficiency by utilizing uti-lizing the ideas of the 1,300,000 employees em-ployees of the department |
