Evening star., 1943-10-29
Balkan Front?


In recent address which was
given Wide publicity, General Smuts,
Premier of the South African Union,
predicted that the world would soon
see much sitter fighting in the
Balkans This elder statesman of
the British Empire knows what he
is talking about. Certainly, the
course of current events in the
Balkans lends color to the belief
that big developments impend there
in the relatively near future.
Italy's collapse and virtual with
draWal from the war last summer
upset the Axis system of military
occupation in the Balkans, most
of its garrisons in Yugoslavia and
Greece being Italian. Those garri-
sons, aggregating at least 100000,
had quickly to be replaced by Ger
man or satellite troops. The interim
period of confusion has been taken
advantage Of by the organized
guerrilla forces in YugoSlavia and
! Greece, aided by much equipment
turned over to them by diSaffected
| Italian soldiers before they were
diSarmed and interned by the Ger
! mans. Even though the guerrillas
spend part of their energies fighting
each other, they are throwing the
western and southern parts of the
Balkan peninsula into a turmoil
which the Germans are unable to
reOreSS.
Furthermore. these guerrillaS are
beginning to get outside aid from
two quarters. The Anglo American
advance up the Italian peninsula
has given the Allies sea and air
control Of the Adriatic, across which
munitions and supplies are going to
the YugoSlav guerrilla forces. Equal
ly important are the nightly flights
Of Russian transport planes over
Rumania and Hungary, bearing
arms and skilled organizers not only
to the YugoSlav PartiSans, but SEEM
lngly to anti-AXis and pro-RuSSian
elements in Bulgaria as we'll. The
rebellious Balkan peoples are thus
being stimulated and aided to
further resistance. and the ground
work is thereby being laid for a
| possible eventual invasion by United
Nations armies.
This broader term is used because
the German defeats in Russia open
the prospect of Soviet invasion of
the Balkans. Once the Crimea is
again in Russian hands. the Russian
Black Sea fleet will control that
entire body Of water and Red ex-
! peditionary forces presumably could
be conveyed to the coasts of Bull
garia and Rumania where their
arrival probably would touch off an
explosion among the pro-Russian
and anti-AXis elements in both
countries. The German high COM
mand is repeatedly much concerned
over such q possibility
Meanwhile, there remains a posi-
bility of Anglo American landings
on the Adrlatic coast of YugOslavia,
much of which is in guerrilla hands.
The chief difficulty in the way of an
immediate large-scale Allied in
vasion of the Balkans from this
quarter is the time of year. All
Hnurr1 tho q clnro 1f lr;
attic forbidding wall of mountains
rises directly from the sea, with only
few passes to the interior, and
during the winter those passes are
choked with snow. However, the
coastal strip itself has a mild cli-
mate so the Allies conceivably might
spend the winter months ejecting
the Germans from their coastal foot
! holds and consolidating for a spring
drive.
The other Allied pathway to a
Balkan invasion is up the Aegean
Sea to continental Greece and the
| port city of Salonika which lies at
| the mouth of the Vardar Valley,
the classic gateway of Balkan in
vasions. The British already have
begun to assail the island portals to
the Aegean, against stiff German
resistance, while Allied air squad
rons, taking off from captured fields
in Southern Italy, are heavily bomb
ing key points on the main German
supply line through the Western
Balkans from Belgrade to Salonika
However, here again, the winter
months would have to be devoted
to clearing the Aegean before a
spring invasion up the Vardar would
be feasible.