THE WAR IN REVIEW
THE WAR IN REVIEW ALTHOUGH Allied arms continued this week to carve out major gains on the global battlefronts, there were many signs that mounting Axis resistance, coupled with unfavorable weather...
...These reports, wholly unconfirmed, said that Balkan countries had become so concerned over the negotiations that at least one of them, Rumania, was said to have made a demand on Berlin for information regarding them...
...Violent fighting continued between Yugoslav Partisans under Gen...
...3Another disturbing political development indi...
...Outstanding military news of the week was the announcement that the great Italian port, Naples, had fallen to the hard-driving troops of Lt...
...Josip Broz and German occupational forces, while Gen...
...The resolutions denounced the Communists and accused them of "a disobedient attitude and subversive activities...
...Balkan Tinder Box Although American news commentators were hurling a heavy barrage of contemptuous adjectives at the language used in Berlin communiques announcing the retreats, it was obvious that the German withdrawals were orderly and were being executed skillfully...
...George C. Marshall, Chief of Staff, is being "kicked upstairs...
...Meanwhile, conditions in the Balkans grew steadily worse for the Germans...
...This was not only true in Italy, but in Russia as well...
...which solution will be sought for the grave differences that have arisen among the three countries regarding future conduct of the war and plans for post-war settlement...
...A successful assault would imperil the whole Nazi position in the Ukraine...
...Mark Clark's Fifth Army and that Foggia, the great Axis air base on Italy's eastern coast, was now securely in the hands of Gen...
...He assured them that nobody knew "better than the Fuehrer himself what tribulations have been suffered in bombed sections," and contended that Germany would win the air war and ultimate victory...
...Draja Mikhailovich, Yugoslav guerrilla commander, is reported to have informed the Allies that he is ready to strike as soon as the Allied invasion begins...
...The Reds, it was believed, were massing for a powerful smash at Kiev, the great capital city of the Ukraine on the west bank of the Dneiper...
...It was noted that the President did not deny London stories that Marshall's new command would be confined only to the invasion of western Europe and would not, as Administration supporters have insisted in this country, put him at the head of a planetary command...
...Referring to MacArthur's statement this week President Roosevelt expressed his complete agreement with the general's criticism, but he gave no indication that plans were underway to provide the Southwest Pacific commander with the men and materials to conduct the Japanese campaign in the way he wants to...
...Across the world in the Southwest Pacific, the Huon Gulf area in New Guinea was under complete Allied domination with the fall of Finsch-hafen, Japanese naval and air base...
...tion within Germany itself were strengthened this week when Paul Josef Goebbels, Nazi Propaganda Minister, warned the German people in a radio address the government "would cut off the head" of any German who endangered the war effort by disloyalty or who placed personal comfort "above the honor of our people...
...Several factors, of course, contributed to the abrupt halt in the Red advance, among which were the heavy seasonal rains and the need for a pause to regroup and reorganize...
...For an analysis of the background and meaning of this development read Harry Paxton Howard's article on Page 9 of this issue...
...But it was evident from the fury with which the Germans were resisting all attempt to breach the line that they had withdrawn in good order with their forces still intact...
...Sir Bernard Montgomery's veteran Eighth Army...
...Douglas MacArthur's forces prepared to strike west at the remaining enemy bases on the island, his complaint of the previous week against "island hopping" strategy was still the subject of interest at home...
...The Marshall Command In the same press conference the President scolded the newspapers for printing reports that Gen...
...rectly involving the Soviet Union came this week from Chungking, the Chinese capital...
...2It was obvious from the hasty last minute prep...
...arations and the desperate conciliatory gestures to Moscow, that the British and American governments were deeply disturbed by the increasing rumors of Russo-German peace negotiations coming out of neutral countries such as Switzerland and Sweden...
...Reports from Stockholm this week told of a desperate and dramatic visit to the Dneiper front by Hitler...
...The reports said that Germany had offered Russia armistice terms in June of 1942 in which the Red borders of 1939 would be restored and that these negotiations had recently been reopened with the expectation that Russia would soon take surprising new political measures in regard to Germany...
...THE WAR IN REVIEW ALTHOUGH Allied arms continued this week to carve out major gains on the global battlefronts, there were many signs that mounting Axis resistance, coupled with unfavorable weather and terrain, were slowing down the rate of advance...
...Meanwhile, the following political developments claimed a large share of attention in the week's news: 1Final preparations were being made for the Mos...
...The Kremlin gave some indication this week of the adamant position its delegates will take at the conference when a request from President Roosevelt to move the meeting place to London was politely but firmly turned down by Moscow...
...Shifting from threats to reassurances, Goebbels declared that there would be plenty of food for the German people, although a preceding speaker had warned that severe drought had cut crop production below expectations...
...Resolutions passed by the new Chinese parliament brought into the open the strained relations between the Communists, who dominate a large section of autonomous Chinese territory, and the Nationalist government of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek...
...The Russians appeared to have come to at least a temporary standstill along the Dneiper line...
...cow tri-partite conference between the United States, Great Britain, and Russia in...
...As Gen...
...4Rumors of rapidly mounting unrest and dissen...
...Declaring that he would refuse to discuss Marshall's transfer until it has become a fact, the President confined his remarks to denouncing newspaper articles and criticising War Department officials for allowing plans regarding Marshall to leak out...
...Driving north toward Rome this week in a campaign which President Roosevelt characterized as a holy crusade to free the Vatican and the Pope from Nazi hands, the two armies were slowed by the mountainous terrain and the clever delaying tricks of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, who commands the Nazi operatiens in Italy...
...Secretary of State Hull will be accompanied by W. Averell Harriman, Lend-Lease coordinator and millionaire banker and railroad magnate, whose appointment as United States ambassador to Moscow this week was marked down by observers as another Administration overture to big business...
...The German leader is reported to have told his generals that the line "must be held...
Vol. 7 • October 1943 • No. 41
