Evening star., 1939-09-02
Germans May Find
Surprising Defense
In Poland
British and French Can
Strike at VitoI
Points in Reich
BY COL. FREDERICK PALMER.

BY COL. FREDERICK PALMER.
NEW YORK, Sept. 2 (N.ANA)-
How long can the Polish army hold
out against the German? Chan
cellor Hitler's generals may have
underestimated the power of Polish
resistance, as the Kaiser's underesti-
mated the French in 1914. The Kali
ser's staff expected to overwhelm
the French army and take Paris In
three months, with the German SOL
diers home victorious for Christmas
What aid can Britain and France
give Poland to save her from con-
quest? But to the first question first
Statistically and on the map, ii
looks like an easy sweep through
Poland. Germany has more thar
three and half times Poland's pep
ulation, far greater industrial re-
sources still greater plants for the
production Of arms and ammunition
Germany claims an army with
trained reserves of four and hall
millions. She claims four or five
times the number of Poland's planes,
which are reported to be about 800.
In the air, the odds are heavily
against the Poles. The Germans
have plants to make good plane
wastage, and the Poles lack them. II
the Germans have been manufactur-
ing guns as fast as they boast, they
outgun the Poles in artillery, unit for
unit, and again the Germans have
plants to keep up the flow of pro-
duction. The Poles have depended
largely upon foreign arms plans for
their artillery. One source was the
Skoda arms plant in Czecho-Slo-
vakia, now busy making weapons
for Hitler to use against the Poles.
A War of Movement.
On the map the strategic problem
favors the Germans. The Polish
Corridor is strip between the
pincers of East and West Prussia
Hitler can strike from both sides in
a strangle-hold. The western from
tier of Poland, opposite Berlin and
trunkline German highway and
railroad systems, is itself a bulge,
salient. Since the western frontier
of Poland Is more than three times
the length of the old World War
trench line from Switzerland to the
North Sea. there could be no solid
defensive trench line.
Thus we have war of movement,
as we did on the eastern front in
the World War The Germans have
openings for their drives, as they
had through Belgium and as Won
Hindenberg had in his eastern cam
palgns. The terrain of Western and
Central Poland has few natural OBJ
stacles except the smaller rivers be-
tween the frontier and the Great
Vistula. That favors the German
offensive rush.
Evidently, Polish strategy is to fall
back on prepared positions. waiting
for the German plan to disclose it
self and for the Germans to exhaust
some of their energy on the march,
and to gain some advantage in
maneuver. This has its likeness in
Joffres Marne campaign.
Both armies are new, untried
armies. The Polish was born 20
years ago with the rebirth of the
Polish nation. Certainly the present
German Army cannot be the equal
in training OF the German Army of
1914, but 1t thinks it is better in its
Storm Trooper confidence. Hitlers
German Army has the same con-
tempt for the Poles that the
Kaiser's army had for the French
before the Marne in 1914. War is
surprise. The Germans may meet
another surprise.
Aboves all other factors is the
spirit of the soldiers themselves and
their belief in their cause when they
are on anything like equal terms
The lnfantryman is supreme. He
taxes and holds the land, and that
Is the issue in land battles. When
his determination is fixed to fight to
the death, he is ready to 20 on short
rations and to keep on with inferior
weapons. The Germans have a
cause In Danzig, which they see as
German city, and in Silesia. with
its considerable German population
and its mines and factories in the
former German Poland.
Poles Fighting for Life,
But, beyond that, the cause is the
Poles. He knows he is fighting
for the very life of his nation,
which. once crushed, rose again,
This he may prefer to living in a
dismembered Poland. This time he
may expect less mercy under the
conqueror's rule than before and
when the soldier is set to die rather
than yield we shall see if the de-
fensive power Of modern arms has
not given him greater power of
resistance than in the World War.
Every time the poles force a Ger
man column to deploy it means
delay. The poor roads of Poland.
the few great trunk roads-over
which the Germans are evidently
striking-are a gerater disadvan-
tage to the advance than the de-
fense. The Poles do not need to
drop air bombs to cut bridges and
blow up railroads and highways as
they retreat. Explosive in an en-
gineer's hands is enough. A mod
ern European army division of
$4,000 to 1900 men occupies from
II to IS miles of highway with all
its guns and supply trains. The
trains cannot go across open fields.
For rapid advance the Germans
will have to build roads and, later
in the fall, will have to contend
with rains. 1t was many months
before Won Hindenberg could reach
Warsaw with his army against the
badly armed Russians-some of
them has clubs instead of rifles
with their corrupt commissariat,
their hearts out of their cause.
The Poles are better armed and,
if they have not cause now, they
never will have. A retreating army
has a powerful sting in its tail. It
took Grant year to get from the
Wilderness to Appomattox, when
Lee was outnumbered, outgunned