Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-04-22
Will to War
Is Secret of
Maxi Success
Troops Practice Landing
for British Invasion
BY PAUL MALLON

WASHINGTON. April 22-
w Hitler's war magic seems
really invincible in only one line
the propaganda line which is
deluding the world into believing
he is invincible. His feats are
about as battling as simple
card trick after you know how
it is done.
Capture of the impregnable
key Belgian defense Fort Eben-
Emael. which crushed the whole
Belgian line. was one of his
greatest illusions and the most
mystifying. Berlin announced it
was done with "a secret wea-
pom"
Unofficially his propagandists
led the world to believe the
weapon was a nerve gas which
froze the Belgian defenders rigid
until the Germans climbed over
the fort and pinched them.
The only weapon he used in
that fort was the old machine
gun. His only secret was his
superior will to war and his con-
sequent superior preparation for
it. The only gas was in the
propaganda afterward.
WEARS before the attack. the
l. German military men, know
ing Eben-Emael was the key TO
the Belgian situation. con-
Structed replica of it in Ger
many. They prsctised attacking
it for months until they found
the wa. When the time came
TO use the way, the same troops
which had rehearsed against the
dummy Eben-Emael. measuring
every foot of the ground, acted
out their simple assigned parts.
First day. artillery fire was
directed into the vast open-held
center of the fort. TO create
shell craters. Parachute troops,
armed with plain old machine
guns, were dropped into the
fort center on toward evening.
Holing themselves into the
shell craters. they withstood
every effort of the confused and
surprised Belgians TO dislodge
them. Next day, German troops
crossed the river four miles
above, out of range of the runs
of the fort. They besieged il
from the outside, while the de-
tenders were machine gunned in
the back when they tried to
man the guns on the inside.
That was all there was to it.
The military facts have
come to light in the Field Artil-
lery Journal. a semiofficial mag
azine of the military trade, in a
recent issue.
THIS is the same kind OF
l. nerve gas" Hitler adapted
TO the French at Sedan, the
Norwegians. the Poles and lately
the Yugoslavs and Greeks.
Each Of these campaigns was
rehearsed on simulated terrain
in Germany, and-here is the
main news of this column
right now the NaZis are prac-
ticing ferrying across the Bal
tic around the base of Denmark.
They are rehearsing landing
operations against defenSeS
built to resemble the British
coastal defenses.
AS military men find out the
facts of Hitler's magic. they
must become increasingly con-
WINGED that Hitler will lose his
feigned invincibility when his adj
versaries develop an equal will
10 war. The Germans are not
smarter. They do not even yet
have superior production ca
pacitv TO make weapons OF
war. They are far behind in raw
materials.
But one thing they have had
for a long time. a thing which
has been slow TO grow in both
this country and Britain. the
superior will to do it. No coal
strikes cut their steel produc-
tion-not because their phony
system was good. 1t is really
only a receivership for a bank
rupt nation.
Yet the cool consuming anger
which is necessary for the utmost
effort in war. continues to rise
unsteadily in the '~democracies.
whereas the Germans were born
with il. "a further proof that
the system has nothing TO do
with it lies in the experience of
Italy, which had the system
first.)
Distributed by King Features synd., Inc