THE WAR IN REVIEW
THE WAR IN REVIEW THE sweeping advance of American forces through Brittany—an advance which promised to bring the invasion drive up to the scheduled timetable—stole headlines this week from the...
...Five of these were said to be warships...
...Speaking of the war in the Pacific, he said that "the interval between the defeat of Hitler and the defeat of Japan will be shorter— perhaps much shorter—than I had at one time supposed...
...Douglas MacAr-thur's forces last week made a new landing at Sansapor, the Americans were -driving the enemy before them and had cut all coastal communications...
...Nazaire and Lorient, and had ripped into the outer defenses of the French seaport city of Brest on the tip of the Peninsula...
...Closing In On Japan In the Pacific war, naval task forces were dealing out crushing blows to enemy shipping...
...THE WAR IN REVIEW THE sweeping advance of American forces through Brittany—an advance which promised to bring the invasion drive up to the scheduled timetable—stole headlines this week from the sensational offensive of the Red Army in the east...
...While Finland seemed to be moving out of the war, Turkey appeared to be getting ready to step in...
...In one sector the Russians stood ready to drive into East Prussia and were threatening Silesia further to the south...
...The Germans were apparently making a desperate stand to prevent invasion of German soil...
...He declared that he was not afraid of the fight ahead and pleaded for "blind confidence" on the home front...
...He warned, however, against too much reliance on the reports of internal dissension in the Axis countries, saying that "potent as may be these manifestations of internal disease, decisive as even they may be one of these days, it is not in them that we should put our trust, but in our own strong arm and the justice of our cause...
...Meanwhile, there were indications that Hitler intended to continue to fight until the very end...
...Although tempered with caution, his address was the most optimistic since the beginning of the war...
...The Ankara government this week severed diplomatic and economic ties with Germany in a move which many observers believed to be a prelude to a declaration of war...
...At mid-week the Americans were pressing the Japanese deep into the jungle and preparing the newly won area—only 600 miles south of the Philippines—for use as an advance base in the drive northward...
...The spectacular American show set off a wave of optimism throughout the Allied world which was reflected in Prime Minister Winston Churchill's address to the House of Commons...
...On the eastern front the steamrolling Red Army was meeting with stiffer resistance than it has at anytime since its Summer offensive was launched six weeks ago, but it was still beating the badly battered Wehrmacht back along a 1200-mile line...
...Of the 41, 11 were sent to the bottom...
...The action of the Turks, it, was believed, presages the opening of a new military front against Germany in the Balkans...
...In a series of raids on Japanese bases in the Bonim Islands, only 600 miles from Tokyo, Americans sank and damaged 41 enemy ships...
...Some of the armored units which broke through the German lines at Avranches, on Normandy's narrow Cotentin Peninsula, were roaring ahead at a rate that exceeded more than 40 miles a day in some areas...
...Reports of the change hailing Mannerheim as being more acceptable to the Kremlin as a negotiator embarrassed Communists and fellow-travelers in this country who have insisted that Mannerheim is the symbol of "fascism" in Finland...
...In less than a week they had raced across the Breton Peninsula, were standing at the gates of the Nazi U-boat nests at St...
...In a speech which the German news agency DNB said was delivered to Reich leaders, Hitler was reported to have asserted that he was thankful "because I*believe it is necessary for the nation to have a man like me who would not capitulate under any circumstances, and who holds high the banner of faith and confidence...
...They charged that the Committee was entirely under Communist influence...
...Shakeup In Finland On the political side of the war there were two significant developments relating to the position of Finland and Turkey in the war...
...He asserted that the German and Japa* nese armies are recoiling on every battlefront of the world and that the war "approaches perhaps its closing stage...
...A shakeup in the Finnish government which saw President Risto Ryti replaced by Marshal Baron Carl Mannerheim was taken to mean that Finland was preparing to get out of the war...
...American troops under Lt...
...Storming through the French province of Brittany, the Americans were marking up some of the most remarkable gains of the war...
...One of them, chairman of the executive committee of the Polish Socialist Party, declared that all Poland is behind the London exile government...
...It is expected that Turkey's abandonment of its policy of strict neutrality will open air bases in Asia Minor to the British within easy bombing distance of the Balkans...
...Mark Clark were reported to be preparing for a drive across the Arno River from their positions on the south bank...
...In Italy, the British Eighth Army was still in possession of a section of the city of Florence and military spokesmen seemed confident that it was only a question of time before the entire city would be occupied...
...Meanwhile, underground workers arriving in London from Poland declared that the Soviet supported Committee did not have the support of the Polish people...
...Further to the south in Dutch New Guinea where Gen...
...Developments in the Russian-Polish controversy also claimed a prominent place in the news...
...The Polish controversy was highlighted this week by a report that Premier Stanislaw- Mikolajczyk of the Polish government-in-exile had conferred with Stalin and that he would soon begin discussions with representatives of the newly formed rival group, the Polish Committee for National Liberation, which Moscow has recognized as the provisional government of all liberated Polish areas...
...Stressing the American victories in the Pacific, he declared that they had opened "the prospect of a more—much more speedy climax" of the war in that area...
...Although the news carried no indication that other Allied leaders shared Churchill's optimism, military developments at mid-week had given him little cause to regret his words...
...Churchill Sees 'Closing Stage' "I fear greatly to raise false hopes," he declared, "but I no longer feel bound to deny that victory may come perhaps soon...
...An American column in Brittany was rolling toward Paris and reports told of German evacuation of that city...
...MacArthur described the Japanese defenders as being "in a state bordering on demoralization...
Vol. 8 • August 1944 • No. 33
