THE WAR IN REVIEW
THE WAR IN REVIEW GRIM fighting that cost America dearly in men and materials for every mile gained continued this week along the snow and mud clogged Western Front as the gigantic Winter offensive...
...George Patton, Jr., provided the most cheering military news of the week when his hard-charging 3rd Army hurtled across the Saar River to establish a bridgehead into that rich German industrial basin and to begin the first assault on the southern anchor of the Siegfried Line...
...Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek has been trading space for time, but he is running out of space now...
...Al-bert C. Wedemeyer, American commander in China, declared that the situation "continues unfavorable to us' and that Japanese forces facing the badly run-down armies of China "defi nitely indicated offensive possibilities.' From Chungking the United Press reported that the Chungking Government faced its gravest military and political threat of the eight-year war...
...British military authorities in Greece, overruling a decision of the Greek Government to allow a mass political demonstration, created a situation which resulted in a riot and the killing of several people...
...Meanwhile, the troubles of Poland's government-in-exile continued to mount...
...Commenting on the Japanese mainland campaign, Gen...
...Grave Problem In China From the Pacific there came little to balance, off the discouraging news from Europe...
...As developments unfolded in Italy, Greece, and Belgium it was becoming more and more apparent that Great Britain was headed for a critical showdown with left-wing elements within those countries who were thought in a large part to be getting direction from Moscow, although there was no official confirmation of this...
...Foreign Minister Anthony Eden let it be known that the British regarded Sforza as "unreliable" and categorically ruled him out without consultation with either American or Russian officials...
...The Reich's anti-aircraft defense also revealed sobering effectiveness when it knocked 56 Allied planes out of the air in one raid...
...But it was not only the military dispatches which gave cause for alarm over developments in Europe...
...These developments, combined with the prolonged stalemate on the Eastern Front, brought statements from President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill that the war may well last longer than was expected when the Allies were thundering across France...
...It was on the Asiatic continent however that the United Nation's faced the gravest problem...
...Whatever the merits of the internal disputes within those countries, it was obvious at mid-week that Britain's high-handed interference was forcing the democratic elements, such as the followers of Sforza in Italy, into the arms of the always active and well-disciplined Communist ranks...
...But it was evident that the British would remain adamant in Italy as well as in other areas of unrest...
...The arbitrary British action stirred up a storm of protest both in this country and in England and brought from Bonomi himself a spirited defense of Sforza...
...The Wehrmacht' was also showing surprising strength in Italy where its savage counterattacks had thrown back American 5th Army forces in several sectors...
...A new Socialist, Tomasz Arciszewski, a foe of the Soviet Union, was called upon to form a new cabinet...
...Roosevelt saw "long and hard fighting ahead" and Churchill told the House of Commons that he was revising his earlier prediction of victory in "early 1945" to strike out the word "early...
...The resignation of Premier Mikolajczyk's Government last week and the futile attempt of Socialist Jan Kwapinski to form a new cabinet did little to improve the situation...
...The campaign in the Philippines was bogged down in the torrential rains that began almost with the first landings of Mat-Arthur's troops on Leyte...
...In Greece and in Belgium British bayonets and armored cars were bolstering governments which the left-wingers claimed were reactionary and "collaborationist...
...In Belgium the government of Premier Hubert Pierlot was under attack from Communists and other leftist groups...
...In Italy the Bonomi Government crashed against the unyielding demands of the Socialist-Communist coalition and fell...
...Patton Hurtles Saar Lt...
...THE WAR IN REVIEW GRIM fighting that cost America dearly in men and materials for every mile gained continued this week along the snow and mud clogged Western Front as the gigantic Winter offensive aimed at knocking Germany out of the war entered its second month...
...The political situation in the "liberated" countries were reaching a dangerous boiling point...
...From Allied spokesmen came frank admission that the German defense was being masterfully handled, lending confirmation to the report that it was no longer at the mercy of Adolf Hitler's "intuition," but now rested in the hands of trained military men...
...Efforts to replace it with a cabinet headed by Italy's long-time antifascist, Count Carlo Sforza, who is said to have the confidence of the left wingers, met with a curt rebuke from Britain...
...Well informed sources said that the next 60 days might determine whether China will be knocked out of the war," the United Press correspondent wrote...
...Unless the Chinese armies hold Kweiyang until the Burma Road can be reopened, China may be totally defeated...
...The B-29s, however, were over Tokyo again this week, demonstrating that a systematic campaign to cripple Japan's industrial power is underway...
Vol. 8 • December 1944 • No. 50
