THE WAR IN REVIEW
THE WAR IN REVIEW NO CAVEAT in the great books of German military strategy is repeated more often or with more emphasis than that Germany must" never allow herself to be drawn into a war in which...
...The problem of what to do with Gen...
...Sir Harold Alexander...
...Despite reports from the French invasion territory indicating that de Gaulle is regarded as a hero by the French people, the United States Government seemed no more inclined to grant him recognition as the provisional government of France than it has been since his committee was first established...
...Political Problems Remain With the exception of this serious situation in China, the peoples of the United Nations had cause this week for encouragement...
...This port, if taken by the Allies, would provide an excellent pivot base for further invasion smashes...
...The enemy is said to have lost 70,000 men in a month's time in the Italian fighting...
...And in the East the mighty Red Army of Soviet Russia had struck its first blow in the grand pincers strategy...
...But on the political front the same old problems remained, growing worse as the military situation improved...
...To Gen...
...Coordination of Allied military strategy seemed entirely satisfactory...
...Meanwhile, the United States State Department let it be known that Prime Minister Churchill's recently expressed views of friendship for the government of the Spanish dictator, Francisco Franco, did not coincide with its own...
...State Department Hits Franco The arrival of Stanislaw Mikolajczyk, premier of the Polish government-in-exile, in Washington last week called attention again to the unsettled state of that country's boundary dispute with Soviet Russia...
...Noting the ease with which the invading troops breached the vaunted coastal defenses, military experts were inclined to the belief that Nazis were only bluffing and that their real defensive strategy was based on the mobility of their ground forces further inland...
...It was evident that the Germans were holding back their full striking power until they were satisfied that the main Allied thrust had been made...
...This week the Third German Reich found itself engaged in a titanic struggle—not on two fronts, but on three...
...See map...
...The communique added that German prisoners describe the situation as "chaotic...
...Little space could be found for the sobering statements of Prime Minister Churchill and Secretary of War Stimson that the worst fighting lay ahead...
...In the West, on the invasion coast of France, the armies of Adolf Hitler fought desperately to throw the great Allied liberation armies under the direct command of Gen...
...Nor had the political situation in Italy been clarified by Victor Emmanuel's relinquishment of his kingly prerogatives to his son, Crown Prince Umberto...
...Observers in Washington were inclined to believe that the President, concerned about the large Polish-American vote in this year's election, had decided to take the matter in his own hands and to use his personal offices to bring about a reconciliation between the two countries...
...Hysterically optimistic headlines, distorting the developments as they unfolded, were the order of the day...
...The French leader, it was obvious, was being snubbed by President Roosevelt...
...The high command was quoted as saying that this new invasion "is imminent...
...As the Allied landing forces penetrated inland, Nazi resistance stiffened and slowed their progress considerably...
...A statement from Fifth Army headquarters at mid-week declared that the 14th German Army had been "dispersed to the four winds" and that the "few scattered remnants were mainly engaged in stealing one another's transport to get away as fast as possible...
...Both men warned against "super-optimism" and declared that the big issue had not yet been joined...
...This situation," he said, "obviously is not acceptable for us, and it could provoke in France itself incidents which it seems to us must be avoided...
...14th Army Dispersed On the southern front, American Fifth Army veterans were lunging northward from Rome in hot pursuit of the fleeing armies of Field Marshal Albert Kesselring...
...THE WAR IN REVIEW NO CAVEAT in the great books of German military strategy is repeated more often or with more emphasis than that Germany must" never allow herself to be drawn into a war in which she will have to face enemies on two fronts at the same time...
...Some papers ran special boxes calling attention to the record-shattering circulation fig ures the bloody battle was providing...
...Dwight Eisenhower's statement, made last week after a meeting with de Gaulle, that agreement had been reached on military problems, the French leader took sharp exception...
...In the East, the Red Army had launched a thundering offensive aimed at knocking Finland out of the war and isolating approximately 100,000 German troops in the northern part of that country...
...At mid-week a furious battle was raging for possession of the city...
...Charles de Gaulle and his French Committee for National Liberation was no nearer solution...
...Warn Against Super-Optimism' It was evident after a week of fighting that Montgomery's strategy called for a drive across the narrow Normandy Peninsula, thus cutting off the portion on which is situated the great French seaport of Cherbourg...
...The determined offensive of the Japanese to seal off eastern China against future use by the Allies had carried the invaders to the gates of the vital communications center, Changsha...
...The Polish premier was reported to have undertaken the visit to confer with President Roosevelt concerning the boundary problem...
...Along the French coast invasion strip it was evident that the German armies this week were giving a.good account of themselves...
...In the south they were in flight before the hard-hitting Allied forces under Gen...
...Sir Bernard Montgomery back into the sea...
...News from across the world on the Asiatic continent was not so cheering...
...The unfolding German strategy and radio reports from the continent bore out their views...
...Chungking reported that while the embattled Chinese were fighting desperately to hold the Japanese who had driven 200 miles from the north, another enemy column was pushing up from the south in an attempt to crush the city in the invasion vise...
...Here at home the first week of invasion was characterized by a wild circulation contest among the newspapers...
...A new cabinet, formed under Premier Ivanoe Bonomi, who succeeded Marshal Pietro Badoglio, took office this week and noticeably snubbed the new king...
...It is generally agreed that Roosevelt is the only person blocking the status de Gaulle seeks for his committee...
...Vichy radio quoted the enemy high command that "60 Allied divisions are waiting in Britain to make another leap across the water to land on a different spot in Europe...
...First reports declared that the Russian troops have- slashed deep into the Finnish lines and were carving out large gains in the Karelian Isthmus...
...There were reports that de Gaulle would soon make a trip to the United States to confer with President Roosevelt in an effort to come to some understanding...
...De Gaulle declared that Eisenhower's statement, as well as his proclamations to the French people, seemed to foreshadow a taking over of all power in France by the Allied military government...
...Members of the new cabinet, drawn from all six anti-Fascist parties in Italy, omitted to take the customary oath to the crown...
...The Germans, they held, were unwilling to pit stationary forts against the overwhelming Allied sea and air power...
...Said the State Department Bulletin, an official Department publication, the Spanish government is a "dictatorship under debt to Hitler" and cannot be considered either as an ally or as a neutral...
Vol. 8 • June 1944 • No. 25
