The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1942-07-31
WORLD WAR IN ITS MOST
CRITICAL STAGE
respectfully your!
E. B. COOLIDGE.

| With the submarines sinking boats
faster than we build them, with the
uper-battleship Tripitz accompanied
| by bombers and subs astride our sup
ply line to Russia, with the battle of
Egypt hanging in the balance and
Japan making steady gains in the Far
East and Russia giving ground at a
strategic point on the battle front, the
war is in its most crucial stage. Hit
Ter, with numerical superiority of
tanks and all the manpower he could
rake up in Europe, is making a des-
perate effort to force a decision or
gain one of his main detectives: the
Caucasian or the Near East oil fields.
The battle now raging on the Khar-
kow-Rostov front may have a deter
mining effect on Japans next move
and shape near events in Turkey as
well as in India. With the fall of
Hongkong and Singapore and the
estrangement Of India, the colonial
policy of Great Britain has demon
strated its weakness and shown a
poor military strategy; for had the
garrisons and equipment of Hongkong,
Singapore and Tobruk been landed in
Petsamo or Murmansk last fall or
winter when the route was compare
lively safe, Finland would likely be
out OF the war now, the northern
supply route to Russia would be much
safer and the freedom of Norway
nearer at hand.
A Western Front, the Only Solution
Hitler has two possible routes to
the oil fields in the Near East without
taking in Turkey, the most ideal of
all, the northern going through Ros-
tov-on-Don and the southern by Egypt
and the Suez canal and losing either
one would still leave him the other to
gain his objective. The nazi war ma
chine is like monstrous octopus with
its head in Berlin and the tenacles
stretching out in all directions again
assuming the initiative after a hard
winter. To fight one of these ten
acles in the Near East, Mr.. Churchill
says in the House of Commons: some
$4,000 men were shipped to the Near
East with $500 tanks, $500 planes,
$4,000 machine guns, 5000 artillery
pieces and 100000 mechanical vehicles
and most of it going by way of Cape
of Good Hope, Africa, taking two
months to reach Libya, thus using
more than so boats for the $4,000
mile trip for what one could do on the
short trip across the channel.
Hitler has by far shorter and
safer route across the Mediterranean
to his troops in Libya than has Eng
land, giving him strategic advantage
there though he would prefer to have
the Allied troops immobilized on the
British Isles out of harms way. Even
an Allied successful campaign in Lib
va, Norway or Italy could be at best
but large scale diversions severing
but some of the tenacles and leaving
the body intact. Thus the invasion of
Italy likely to give the Allied nations
full control of the Mediterranean and
Africa requires the use
Of the major part of the British and
American fleet to establish a bridge
head on Italian soil and keep it busy
or months after In convoy duty and
would have no immediate decisive
military effect on the war nor would
t end it in 1912.
The logical way for the Allied Ma
ions to relieve the pressure on Libya
Ind the Kharkov fronts and ease the
ension on British soil is to start a
Western front across the English
hannel either in France or the Low
while Hitler's army is still
n Russia. You can never win a war
" defense alone and the troops now
N the British Isles are quite capable
o start a Western front across the
hannel (if there are boats enough
o send troops to Libya, there are
'oats enough to cross the channel)
nd put Hitler off his stride and end
he war in 1912 and save millions of
nen by doing it.
An Allied major offensive in West
IN Europe would reduce the sub and
ombing raids to minimum by strik-
ng at their bases; it would relieve
be pressure on the Kharkov front and
heck Axis reinforcements to Libya
S well as Strengthening Turkeys
tand against the common enemy. It
vould deter Japan from an actual in
aston Of India or Siberia and give
ladivostok chance to open up
uick offensive against Tokyo in 1943.
A. E. ANDERSON.
ute, Mont, July 16, 1912