Evening star., 1943-11-10

evidence of the aV
widespread be- David Lawrence
lief that something is going on
behind the scenes which will bring
about sudden ending of the war
Prime Minister Churchill in his
latest address shows he is cognizant
Of this kind of talk and attempts to
squelch it.
What probably is happening is
that the smaller Balkan countries
are trying by one means or another
to extricate themselves from Hitlers
yoke, and no doubt this leads to
rumors in Madrid and Lisbon and
and other neutral capitals. The
moment the Balkans crumble the
wishful thinkers surmise that Ger
many will collapse.
Harder Days Ahead.
Actually the situation is truth
fully portrayed by the Prime Min
lister: There are harder days ahead
than we have lived through German
morale may break sooner than ex-
pected, but the preponderant belief
Is that not until the Allies DEM
onstrate that they can invade the
French coast and maintain bridge
head and support a sizable army
and make advances toward the
Rhine will the German people begin
to believe that the Jig is up and
that peace must be obtained on any
terms.
The air war over Germany has
accomplished a great deal, but the
extremists have misled the American
people into believing this war can
be won by air power alone. No
responsible officer of the air services
really believes this will happen. The
fact is that air power is preparing
the way for an invasion by damaging
German production, but its effec-
tiveness in tactical way along
with an invading army in Western
Europe remains to be demonstrated.
The public evidently likes to be-
lieve the optimistic side. 1t hasn't
noticed the reports of the air raids
In recent days. 1t hasn't noticed
that our Flying Fertresses have not
made any long raids into the in
terror of Germany but have been
confined TO the relatively narrow
areas and radius within which the
protection of the short-range fighter
planes can be given.
Perhaps it is the German rocket
bomb which has prevented unes-
corted Flying Fortresses from pene-
trating far into Germany for day
light attack. Perhaps it is some
other reason of tactics, but until
the Allies get more useable bases
on Russian and Italian territory
from which fighter planes can be
flown, it may be that We shall see
a lull in strategic air bombing of
far-off targets in daylight.
Hitler Speech Inference.
The Hitler speech was read by
many people as sign of Nazi weak
ness. His frequent references to
November, 1918 as if he feared his
tory might repeat itself undoubt-
edly give the wishful thinkers in
America some support for their sur
mises. But military men cannot
depend on surmises. And the as
sumption here among military men
Is that only when an invasion army
has landed and begun to beat the
Germans on a new western front on
the continent of Europe will the end
of the war come into sight.
Meanwhile, the speech of Stain,
which indicated that a second front
was coming soon. and the speech by
Churchill, warning the British and
American peoples of heavy losses
soon to be incurred, may be taken
as a more reliable indication of the
way the war is going than the peace
rumorS on the stock market The
war can be brought to a close in
Europe sometime in 1914 if our mill
tary plans work out successfully, but
the probabilities are that the sum-
mer and autumn of 1914 will see the
climax rather than the early months
Of next year. Certainly the writer
has encountered no one in position
OF authority here who thinks that
the war will be over in Europe this
year unless something not now fore
seen or known about turns up in
the war picture.
Concurrently' the war in the Pa
cific goes at bit faster pace but
there, too the moves are long
drawn-out. Not until we can acquire
bases within bombing distance of
Japan can We hope to crush the
japanese military machine.
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