Evening star., 1942-12-16
No Easy Roads
Lead to Berlin
Military Writer Reviews
Approaches to Heort
Of Nuzi Territory
BY Maj. Gen. J. N. Greeley, U. S. A.

By Maj. Gen. J. N. Greeley, U. S. A.
All roads once led to Rome. But all our
roads to victory in Europe must lead to
Berlin. The Coming Battle of Ger
many by William ziff, looks forward to
victory in the air. As an argument for
air power, 1t is logical and convincing.
! But history shows that lasting triumph
can come only with the occupation of
the land. Fast fighters may clear the
| air, great bombers blast out the way and
greater transports carry troops on fly
ing carpet into the heart of Germany.
But armies strong enough to occupy that
great and stubborn country must go the
hard way. They must move in crowded
vessels through submarine attack They
must plod through ruined country and
build their supply lines as they march.
They must fight across great rivers,
| through mountain passes, and into cities
as wrecked and obstinate as Stalingrad.
These are the roads to victory and peace
at last
None of them is an easy road. But
with the tightened circle of Allied
occupation about German controlled
Europe they are becoming more evident.
The valley roads or snowy passes or
sWampy trails have all been used by
conquerors before. They have known
the rythmic shuttle of foot and hoof, the
rumble OF the artillery. Dead and gone
Russians Poles, Mongols and Turks.
SWedes and Frenchmen have tramped
these routes, as we'll as British and
American troops in more recent years.
The roads remain, and some of them will
know the heavy soldier shoes of Allied
invaders again.
one road, tough on troops and trans
port alike, leads through Scandinavia.
1t was used in part thousands of years
ago when savage warriors from the
north and east poured into the great
forests OF Germany and forced its tribes
south into contact with the Romans. 1t
was used again by Gustavus Adolphus
OF Sweden. who led his Protestant armies
of the Thirty Years War in an invasion
OF the Baltic shores of GERMANY and
held them as conqueror for years. This
way might lead today up the fjords of
Norway, through painfully neutral
Sweden and across the Baltic. This is
one OF hlstorys little-used byroads. It's
principal advantages might be inciden-
tai, such as protecting the supply lines
to north Russia or forcing Finland out
of the war
second way is direct and difficult,
1t means landing on the invasion coast
between Denmark and Channel France,
including, of course, the North Sea shore
Of Germany itself Even after landing
there are a succession of great rivers to
cross, close to their broad and swampv
mouths. But Henry of England and
that later great soldier, the Duke of
Wellington, crossed here to fight con-
tlnental armies. The British fleet was
in the Baltic in Nelson's day and may be
there again. This front is tantalizingly
near to our bastion of the British Isles.
The rest Of France joins with the
Channel route and makes in many ways
a more advantageous road. 1t is the
traditional approach to an invasion of
Germany against which Hitler built his
West Wall. Julius Caesar and Napoleon
were illustrious predecessors of the Army
of Occupation in 1918 in crossings of the
Rhine. Recent operations in Northwest
Africa have added Mediterranean to
Atlantic possibilities for invasion through
France. Much depends, of course, on the
attitude of the French themselves; but
North Africa has shown the weakness of
German system of control rather than
collaboration. The Gestapo merely keeps
silent the strongest souls in a subject
people.
The AEF Of 19l7-18 landed at French
Atlantic ports; but Wellington came first
into France by way of Portugal and
Spain, and Hannibal, Caesar and the
Moslem invaders all moved through
Southern France. The lines OF commu-
nication from southwest to northeast
are good here. Modern railways and
canals parallel the fine old Roman roads
along the river valleys or straight over
green French hills.
The next and most evident road lies
through Italy, which stretches out into
the Mediterranean like a huge jetty
made by nature to invite a landing. The
Tyrrhenian Sea between Sardinia and
Sicily and the Italian shore is very near
to Allied bases in Tunisia, and open to
any forces which hold the upper hand
on the sea and in the air The WEAKNESS
OF the Italian DeODle Under tho doubIa
burden OF the war and the Germans
would make this an easily controlled. If
poverty-strlcken, base before the barrier
Of the Alps had to be faced.
The last road not involved in the Rus
sian front is through the Balkans. Here
Is tough country. and the longest route
from the British Isles or the United
States; but the Turks used it to drive
into Central Europe before, and we can
do 1t again. The Adriatic coast is noun
famous but still held in part by fighting
Serbs. The Grecian passes are not easy
either, but the Germans themselves have
shown that they can be used by great
armies. Further to the north the Danube
is historical highway past Belgrade,
Budapest and Vienna and into the heart
of Germany.
The encirclement of Germany is COM
pleted by the Russian front. This has
been the most active one ever since
Hitler attacked his former collaboration
and pushed deep into his territory. 1t
remains OF the greatest Importance and
is bound to hold large part of the Axis