The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-09-04

losses that the German high com. mand abandoned 1t for good.
 The Italian invasion of Greece and the incredible featS of the small Greek army, combined with Gen. Sir Archibald Wavell's break through in Libya to make Christ mas hopeful. Then Germany enter- cd the picture again. The threat to Greece forced Britain into sending an eXpeditionary force into the Balkans. Gen. Erwin Rommel of the German army replaced Marshal Roddolfo Graziani in Libya, retriev- ed his losses with Q spectacular dashfi and with Q bit more reserves { othrow in might have broken through to Suez.
 Blow Dealt In JugosIavia
 Germany overran Jugoslavia be- fore the army could consolidate on the heels of its coup d'etat. It crush- ed Greece and what forces the British had been able to send, in the bitterest fighting the war had seen. It was the old story of air supremacy, Q big superiority in mass of troops, equipment and fire power and c crushing overweight in tanks.
 In an all-out onslaughter with airborne troops, Germany snatched Crete from @ small defending force. The navy beat back an attempt ct sea-borne invasion, but with heavy losses of It's own. Crete prov cd that no force, land or sea, can operate in pitched battle under modern war conditions without ade- quate support in the air.
 In Ethiopia, the Italians again were beaten, by British and 1n- dian force about otle-fifth their size, and Halle Selassie went back to his throne. By forcing the pace of revolt in 1raq, and then striking at Rashid All before Germany was in position to give him real assis- tance one source of trouble in the Levant was Nquidated. The Syrian campaign, of necessity largely 0 ''kid golves" affair because of the delicacy of relations with Vichy, removed another source.
 Setbacks Not Mlnimized
 None of these SuccSeseh could compensate for the setbacks else- where. Perhaps the Mediterranean campaigns did delay the German timetable. But the average man in England could not forget the new German successes in Greece and Crete, and the government came closer to crisis over them than 1t ever had before.
 In the air, attacks had contin- used through the winter, highlight- cd by the great fire raid on London and the two biggest hlitZ attacks in history, on April IS and May 10 of this year. After May 10 big raids ceased entirely. The luftwaffe was beginning to gather It's strength for the Russian campaign. And the R.AF., starting In mid-June, be- gan It's own growing, nonstop of- fensive, in the day over the coastal fringe across the channel and at night over the industrial Ruhr. At home, its night fighters began SCOT ing heavily.
 Royal Navy Hard Pressed
 At sea, the navy had been bat- ting on two fronts. The submarines, the long-range bombers, ard the occasional surface raiders pushed the Battle of the Atlantic to the limit. Without adequate bases, short on destroyers, and with huge supply problem, Britain fought back. Gradually the danger zone was pushed westward. There was a prospect of American patrols as far as Iceland and beyond. The Battle of the Atlantic was still raging at the end of the war year. Nobody had won. But between them, British warships, the R.AF. and American shipyards might win.
 On the surface. the navy re- mained supreme. The German 26,-. OOOton battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau put into Brest to refuel at the end of March. The navy waited outside. But the R.AF. kept them there in a series of raids which failed to destroy the ships but did mounting damage.
 The -battleship Bismarck slipped into the Atlantic with a consort, the cruiser Prinz Eugen. She dueled Britain's huge Hood and new Prince of Wales, and blew up the Hood. For days. Britain hung on the bulletins as battleshlps from home and from Gibraltar closed in on her. Planes and restroyers slow ed her up. The big guns of the fleet her turrets into silence. A