The Wilmington morning star., 1943-08-24
Interpreting
The War
By KIRKE L. SIMPSON

japanese Axis, virtually had 'e.sI' .
ished its task tonight. 1D'
Out of its deliberations b,
come military decisions calcn1s,
ed to enforce finally the pncon ''
ditional surrender terms oi, I.i,
down under the same Roosevaro
Churchill auspices at CasabIanc,
less than a year ago. Thev will
set in motion grim events in r., ~
rope and Asia The full wA;aS,
of British-American and Canadian,
war making powers of ever !"
creasing scope is about to ba
brought to bear to shorten tbs
road to victory.
What those decisions are sar.
for conjectural glimpses horn
more of the favorable war dsya
lopments in all theaters than =.
any of premature disclosures bero
will be fully revealed only when
they are implemented with ~
ton on the fronts across the A.
lantic or the Pacific where IN.
projected new blows will fall Last
minute deliberations of Mr.. RooSo
welt and Mr.. Churchill and their
highest ranking military advisers
apparently had more to do with
deciding what could be said NJ
them now for public information
than with the war plants them.
selves.
1t is no military secret, how.
ever, that here in Quebec the
strategists found available for Use
upon the global chessboard where
they played out this greatest Of
war games the fighting men,
planes, guns, tanks and all The
rest of the vast impedimenta Of
modern warfare to strike anew
strike hard and strike now bot
east and west simultaneously, The,
found, too, ever growing sea at
air cargo fleets to carry it al
to the fighting fronts in Europe
in the north, south and centya.
Pacific, in Burma and even ~
China.
The great war maps at the stall
headquarters of the conference in
Chateau Frontenac showed new
and encouraging changes even to.
day as reports from the fighting
fronts were posted upon them, The
fourth battle of Kharkov in Rus.
sia had ended by Nazi official ad-
mission in another German re-
treat before advancing Russian le-
gions.
Kharkov was merely a means
to an end in Russian offensive
strategy. 1t was the eastern re-
doubt of the Nazi line protecting
the lower Dnieper crossings from
the most telling blow that the
Russians have struck since the fall
of Orel.
Russian reports from the Khar-
kov sector have repeatedly en-
phasized that the main fighting
was not about the battle ruined
Ukrainian industrial and rail cen
ter but west of it toward Pol
tava. Russian armor had thun-
dered across all Kharkov-Poltava
rail and road connections many
days ago. Whatever of the Nazi
garrison escaped the Kharkov trap
this time raced southwark for the
Dnieper crossings at Dnleperope-
trovsk or Kermenchug, the only
escape of supply routes for the
whole Nazi right flank in Russia
to the Sea of Azov coast.
A suicide German stand at Khar,
kov had slowed up for days the
Russian drive toward the Dnlep.
to form vast and more dead
trap around the foe. With the fall
of Kharkov heavy Red forces en-
gage in the siege are available
to be thrown in from the east on
the flank of the reinforced NazI
| line protecting the Dnieper cross
ings.
There is a point in the Berlin
announcement of the city's eva
cuation that the retreat behind the
Dnieper is in full swing to shorten
the line and conserve waning NaA
manpower. If that is true not ohly
Kharkov but Bryansk and Smo'
lensk to the north and TaganfoS
and the whole Don-DonetS oasm
to the south must be enemy aoaA'
doned. The chance for SMASHING
Russian blow to create for 'le
enemy a greater disaster tnan
Stanlingrad, Tunisia or Sicily
if the Russians can seize 1t DeloIt
September rains intervene to nd"
major maneuvers.
In Quebec, however, CONJECTURE
turned largely to seeking an eH
PLANTATION of the invitation by PTesF
dent Roosevelt that brought ClIn.
ese Foreign Minister 7. V. ooohs
here for the last hours of the ae
liberations. 1t seems certain n'
was summoned to hear and tram tram
NIT to Generalissimo Chang ha
shek word of what had been us
cided upon to expand the Alnss
war effort in China, not so nuy4
to aid Chinese defense agal%
Japanese invaders as to noun !.
China a direct and deadly otfenSm
against Japan and her China 5"
lifelines. ~,
For months there have been VI
nese pleas, official and unofflc.ejj
for expansion Of the air-sefYl'tn N
America bomber fleet IN CnHla .o5
permit it take on strategic lns,oi
- +aa4;a,1 x,,;ceiooc FyDerleDCe"