Evening star., 1939-09-13
Poles AnxiousIy
Await Rain 10 Slow
Nazi War Machine
Mud, Begging Down
Tonks, Also Might
. Free CovoIy
BY JOSEPH S. EDGERTON.

BY JOSEPH s. EDGERTON.
A desperately fighting Polish
army, at last come to grips with the
Mani invader along a major portion
of the Polish main line of defense
behind the San, Vistula and Bug
Rivers, today is looking fervently
to the heavens for an ally which
will be worth many divisions to
them in their struggle to save what
remains to them Of their homeland.
They are looking to the start of
the seasonal rains, expected daily
now following promising showers
which have laid the dust on the
Polish roads and In fiat fields
churned to powder by the tracks OF
German tanks and mechanical
equipment.
A day or two Of really heavy rains
Of the type which customarily be-
gin to fall in Poland about mid
September would do much to change
the complexion Of the fighting now
In progress around Warsaw and
along the rivers, which through the
centuries have meant life to Poland
in time Of war as well as peace.
Dual Advantage in Rain.
They would mean an immediate
slowing down Of the German tank
and armored car attacks which have
been slashing the life out of the
Polish nation and probable LESSEN
ing Of Nazi air raids, which also
have been taking heavy toll. What
is more, they would release for ac-
tion the splendid horse cavalry,
which might be expected to become
at once a serious threat to a Ger
man mechanical army begged down
in the rain-softened Polish plain.
The German successes to date
have been due in large measure to
the superior mobility of their
mechanical columns-a mobility
with which the Poles could not cope
and which left them helpless. Heavy
rains, however, would turn the ia
bles with a vengeance If credit is
to be given to information received
here by military authorities. Not
only would it bog down the German
tanks and armored cars, heretofore
given almost unlimited field Of ac-
ton, but 1t probably would leave
the Poles in a position Of having
superior mobility by permitting
them to use freely the caval-
ry. Experience through centuries
Of warfare in Central Europe has
taught that the cavalry, al
though necessarily slowed down to
some extent also, can still function
eficiently through the periods Of
fall rains. This fact has been re-
f1ected in the composition of the
Polish Army, which probably has
q larger proportion Of cavalry than
vast majority of the worlds armed
forces.
Would Raise River Defenses.
The seasonal rains also will serve
nightly to strengthen the Polish
main defense lines by swelling to
flood stage the rivers, now low as
result of the long dry spell which
has made the German mechanical
eQipment 50 effective against the
slower moving Polish defenders.
Granted swift-flowing, turbulent
rivers in front of their defense
lines, heavy mud to blunt the Ger
man attack and a new field of ac-
ton for their cavalry, the Poles
may yet convert the Nazi "blitz-
kreig" into something less that
"blitz."
The Nazi arms also are begin
ming to feel in their turn something
Of the effects of enemy tanks and
armored cars. The French have
used with apparent success the
same methods the Germans have
been employing IN Poland and have
smashed their victorious way be-
hind great fleets of tanks and ar
mored cars into the capital city of
the rich Observation-Disclosures,
which they were seeking today to
consolidate into the growing Ger
man area now held by French
arms in advance of the German
siegfried line. Military experts re-
gard Saarbruecken as an important
key position in the area between
the Moselle and Rhine Rivers along
the Western front. The French
are methodically hammering away
here along a 100-mile front with
the apparent view of establishing
assault positions from which they
can begin to batter the heavily
fortified western wall, which the
Nazis have claimed is virtually i'm
pregnable.