Evening star., 1943-08-29


solomons. They were in possession of
Buna and Coma on New Guinea and
were a constant menace to Australia
and our entire supply lines to the
Southwest theater. They had a pow
erful navy and large number of planes.
Now as the fifth year is about to start,
the Germans, who were smashed at
Stalingrad, have been pushed farther
back toward their own borders than at
any time since they started their drive
against Russia. They have lost their
hold on Maikop-in fact, have been
driven out of the Caucasus save for one
small force still holding out on the
Kuban Peninsula and now in jeopardy
as the Red armies drive the Nazis back
toward the Dnieper River. Moscow is no
longer in danger. Leningrad has been
restored to full communication with the
rest of Russia.
All of North Africa has been lost,
Sicily is in Allied hands and the fall of
italy apparently waits only on the start
of an invasion. Mussolini is the first of
the trio of tyrants to go.
Industry Heavily Pounded.
Germany's industry has been given the
most terrific pounding of history as the
Allies have taken command of the air
over Europe. Hamburg is a dead city.
Berlin is in fair way to become the
same, as the population in panic has
taken to the woods to escape the re-
lentless death which is raining down
from the skies.
A great part of Germany's hydro
electric power has been wiped out by the
bombing of the Eder and Moehne dams
which caused untold destruction through
out the Ruhr Valley as raging floods from
the unleashed impounded waters of the
dams swept everything before them.
Essen, Dusseldorf, Dortmund, Gel
senkirchen, Muenich, Ludwigshaven, in
fact, almost the complete list of Ger
many's manufacturing centers have been
blasted to the point that her war pro-
duction has been fatally reduced.
Revolt is growing in the seething oc-
cupied countries. Denmark, smallest
of them all, is now torn with sabotage
and resistance. In Yugoslavia it is re-
ported that the Italian troops are SELL
ing their guns and ammunition to the
Chetniks. Everywhere the patriots have
been warned by Gen. Eisenhower to
stand ready to strike when the word
comes that the zero hour has arrived.
Sweden, not in the war, but serving
as path over which supplies and men
poured into occupied Norway, has sud-
denly banned further such traffic.
Rumania, Hungary and Bulgaria, whose
King, Boris, was reported yesterday to
have died, have refused Nazi demands
for more assistance against Russia, and
the benevolent neutrality of the Turks
shows signs of even stronger leanings
toward the Allies.
Japs' Power Reduced
In the Pacific, the Japs have been
driven out of the Aleutians They have
lost New Georgia Island, key to the
rest of the Solomons and Kolombangara
and Bougainville are now in jeopardy
rs is Rabaul on New Britain. Sala-
maua, one of the last remaining strong
points on New Guinea still held by
the Japs, is faced with capture at almost
any moment. But most of all the Japs
have lost by far the greater part of
the destroyer and cruiser strength they
had at the time of Pearl Harbor and
have paid for their aerial fighting in
. ratio which seems now to run con-
sistently at 10 to l or better against
them. AS a striking power, the Japs
are badly weakened, while American
naval strength has grown to the point
that Secretary of the Navy Knox re-
vealed that it is almost twice what it
was year ago.
That is the record which Hitler must
review before he can close the books
for the year. Only overconfdence and
slackened effort by the Allies on the
fighting fronts, the production fronts
and the civilian fronts can afford Hitler
any opportunity in the future to dip
into the black ink while posting facts
IN his ledger Of war;