Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-01-23
War Pictured
As'Fre1ezine'
Into Deadlock
Preclude
Invasion by British
BY PAUL MALLON

BY PAUL MALLON
WASHINGTON, Jan. %
w Fresh accounts from Ameri-
can military observers in Europe
picture the war 10 authorities
here as freezing deeper and
deeper into deadlock. The
situation is simply this:
Hitler has broken the British
blockade with his continental
conquests. The Paris factories,
for instance. were not destroyed
or even harmed much in the
fighting because Paris was de-
clarcd an open City.
Hitler now is working these,
as well as the famous Skoda
works he conquered in Czeoho-
Slovakia. for the production Of
war munitions He Is getting
all the iron he needs from
Sweden He has complete con-
troll over Rumanian oil and
wheat.
TtfE production m these &C.
L cupied areas is said TO be
slow and difficult for German
m agem ent The French,
CzechS. Poles and others are
not moving fast under the lash
of their masters. but they are
producing increasingly for Hit
Ter and their availability gives
the Germans a tremendous pro-
duction capacity. more than
double what they had at the
beginning of the war
The British. on the other
hand. are suffering difficulties
in their production. They are
hampcred by bombings. lack of
trained personnel and the physi-
cal difficulty of getting raw ma
terials from all parts of the
world to their little island
Swedish ore has been cut off,
the granaries of Central Europe
are beyond their reach.
Without American production
they could not expect to last
long.
4 LII the British can do is
"A to keep pecking away with
their blockade tactics and hope
that Hitler eventually viii en-
counter trouble internally and
collapse.
Clearly Hitler is overextended
now. Both he and MusSolini
have been expanding their COM
mitments by easy conqueSts be-
yond their ability-to manage
their empires. The results are
evident in North Africa and
Greece. as far as Italy is con-
cerned.
Hitler's delay in going into
the Balkans was a plain indic8-
ton that he is not entirely free
from the same difficulty. The
care he has had TO exercise in
handling Petain is another indi-
cation of the weakness of his
extended position.
1t is known in Vichy that
Hitler does not like the old
marshal, but dareS not do much
about it, Petain has the weapons
of the French fleet and his own
personal prestige His associates
are sure he would turn the fleet
over to Britain and flee TO
Africa or commit suicide if
pressed too hard.
Hitler's chance of further easy
conqueStS down through the
Balkans or through occupied
France and Spain would fur
Their lengthen his battleline. He
would be committed to war on
two fronts simultaneously -
commitment to which his gen.
eral staff has been opposed.
The only inviting prospect he
has is TO continue the line he
has started "a single-purpose
attack on England.
DUT even, on this front his
IL proposed invasion Is rated
obviously by objective military
analysts. In fact some still
doubt Hitler will undertake IL
in the Spring. Certainly the in
Vasion cannot be fairly launched
until the Germans gain control
of British air.
German tactics bctray no owl
dencc of an attempt to reach
that result Attacks have not
yet been conferred upon airfields.
Not until Hitler switches TO that
type of attack will the military
men believe that he really con-
templates what the world has
como 10 accept as "a forcgone
conclusion
OF course in desperation he
may try invasion without air
control thereby shortening his
prospects of success.
These signs all point, there
fore. 10 a further tightening of
the deadlock. to war of at
least Two or three more years
J. duration - unless someone gets
desperate.
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