Evening star., 1940-05-29
Escape by Sea Seen
Only Hope as Speedy
Germans Close In
Neutral Observers Find
Allies, Equipped for Siege,
No Match for Nuzis
BY DREW MIDDLETON,

Associated Press Forelgn correspondent.
LONDON, May 29.-Neutral mill
tary sources said today the des-
perate situation of the British
expeditionary force and French
troops in the shrinking Flanders
pocket could be relieved only by
mechanical forces equal to Ger
many's as the spearhead of south
ward thrust-or by escape by sea.
These sources said the Allies there
face one of the greatest disasters in
history unless Adolf Hitler's armored
legions can be met with mechanical
divisions at equal firing power and
impervious to German anti-tank
guns, and unless Nazi bombing of
troop concentrations can be met by
equally heavy bombing.
NaZi Germany, applying the les
sons imperial Germany learned in
the World War, has forced the AL
lies-equipped for siege and fortress
warfare-into hurried reconstruction
OF their forces to meet an enemy
travelling so miles an hour, the neu-
tral military men said.
Amazed by German Mechanization.
They viewed as the two most
amazing features of the German
campaign the development of
mechanical cavalry to the point
Of equaling the effect of horse caval-
ry in the days before repeating
rifles and machine-guns, and the
use of aircraft as artillery of the
air'-more effective than the best
long-range guns.
The British Army on the CONT
nent is extremely mobile, and so is
the French Army, although many
of its divisions use horse-drawn
transport. But this mobility, mill
tary men said, was designed to rush
troops to threatened points and fails
to combine mobility and fire power
the German objective.
British and French tanks were
built and manned for use as recon-
naissance units or shock absorbers
In a general push against fortified
positions.
NaZis Go Around Forts.
The Germans have used aircraft
for reconnaissance and invariably
have gone around fortified positions
rather than to storm them by
frontal assault.
Full development of the tank
q British invention-leaves the Nazis
q long stride ahead of Britain.
Thus the strategical situation re-
sembles-in reverse-that of the
winter Of 1914-15.
Retreating after the battle of the
Marne, the Imperial German Army
dug into Notifications which took
every advantage of concentrated fire
power of the machine-gun, a weapon
whose potentialities the Allies had
far underestimated.
Stopped Allies for Three Years.
Upon these positions, the British
and French hurled themselves with
little success for three years.
Today the best fortified positions
belong to the Allies, but command
of the new form of warfare belongs
to the Germans, military analysts
asserted.
The Maginot Line lies open to at
tacking armies driving down the
rear, and no one will say whether
its guns-pointed at Germany-can
be reversed.
Similarly the Gort Line, which the
British built along string of French
blockhouses on the Belgian frontier,
runs east and west, rather than
north and south, and already has
been f1anked by the Nazi armies.
The size of the task facing the
Allies is reflected in the bare outline
of the Germans mobile and mecha-
nized divisions.
Germans Outstripped British.
At the outbreak of the war, Ger
many had five armored divisions,
three motorized divisions and four
light divisions, with sixth armored
division being formed, according to
military reports.
The armored divisions centered
around tank brigades, each of which
contained 200 heavy and 200 light
cAAAno' accompanying ultlSlOIlo
were motorized artillery, engineers
and infantry, with armored cars in
reserve.
Thus the Nazi army had 1000
tanks plus perhaps 1000 armored
cars. In contrast, the British then
were constructing a single armored
division.
The German motorized divisions
were simply infantry divisions of
$1,000 to 10000 men travelling by
truck. Divisional artillery engineer
and anti-aircraft and anti-tank units
also were motorized.
The four light divisions were SINH
lar to the armored divisions except
that their tanks were small and were
carried on trucks to the front, where
they could be launched at critical
points. Both motorized and light
divisions included battalions of
motor cycle and bicycle troops.