Evening star., 1941-04-10
Germany Gets the Jump

Bad news from the Balkans should
not cause panicky pesSimism, but
facts should be resolutely faced. On
the fourth day after the start Of
WhirlWind offensive begun at dawn
on Palm Sunday, the Germans have
reached vital military objectives. The
entire Vardar River Valley, from
Southern Serbia to the port city of
Salonika is in German hands, and
thereby the heroic right wing of the
Greek Army is cut off. but is still
fighting The rest of the Greek
Army is retiring to a new defense line
west of the Vardar River, where it
will presumably be strengthened by
the British eXpeditionary force. But
the loss of Salonika and the Vardar
Valley practically iSolateS Yugoslavia
and prevents effective liaison be-
tween its army and the Anglo-Greek
forces Indeed, with the Germans
occupying at least half of the rel
atively narrow strip of Yugoslav ter
ritory which separates Bulgaria from
Albania, it is difficult to see how a
junction between the German and
Italian armies can be prevented.
Also, Allied plans for quickly driving
the Italians into the Adriatic must
have gone sadly aWry.
These are extraordinary achieve
mentS on the German side. The
Reichswehr is obviously functioning
as efficiently as it did in Norway, the
Low Countries and Northern France.
Indeed, when one considers the topo-
graphical difficulties which confront
ed it, the general break through the
mountain wall sundering Bulgaria
from the Vardar Valley is perhaps
the Reichswehrs crowning achieve
ment in the present war. 1t was that
break-through which nullified the
Greek Army'S magnificent resistance
on its mountain front.
Why did the Yugoslavs thus fall?
The Vardar region must have been
packed with their best troops, since
this was obviously the danger spot.
The morale Of those troops was eX-
Cellent, their leadership was SEEM
ingly good, and there could have
been no element of surprise. The
only explanation for the quick Ger
man success seems to be the over
Whelming technical and mechanical
superiority of the German war
machine.
More than any other existing army,
the ReichSWehr contains many high
Iy specialized units, kept continuously
trained to the pitch of perfection,
and all cO-ordinated into a smoothly
functioning whole German dis
patches speak of mountain assault
troops and f1ame-throwing detach-
mentS heading the break through to
the Vardar and sweeping the Yugo-
SlavS from the heights. 1t is more
than likely that these specialists ar
rived in Bulgaria months ago, under
the guiSe Of tourists" and that
they have been practicing on their
chosen ground ever since. Perhaps
those were the men who scaled the
Norwegian mountains just a year
ago. Possibly they have been held in
reserve ever since, for another SINH
lar job. That is the way the Ger
mans wage war. And, in European
land campaigns, it has proved thus
far most effective.
The Yugoslav Army was a good
army. It's human material was eX-
cellent and it had fine spirit. But it
was built on the old model of a few
branches of the service, and it was
lamentably weak in mechanical
equipment. In short, it was very
much like the French Army of last
summer. And it is seemingly meet
ing a similar fate. The Greeks did
much better, because they were more
up to date in equipment and expert
enCe. The bulk of the Greek Army
is still in being, backed by crack
units of Britain'S Imperial Army.
When the ReichSwehr comes to grips
with this combination, its supreme
test will have arrived.