The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-08-16

~AAS pASoSAAo aAoNA o1AAlSt oOhIC VI the Italian troops evacuating the Balkans invites attack there. To do 1t, the United Nations need cap- ture no more Italian soil than they hold now. They can jump from Cairo to Crete. Or they may first take half or third of the Italian boot. That seems easier, with troops already concentrated in Si- ely. Then they can take the stride at several points from the 47-mile Strait of Otranto to the wider spac- es of the Adriatic, and the British TX and X Armies can join in from the Near East.
 BALKANS ARE THE KEY
 Although difficulties would be greater than in attacking Sicily or even the Italian mainland, we have shown that we know how to handle amphibian operations.
 Conquest of the Balkans would give us virtually every advantage that we would gain from conquest of Italy, crippled as she is already. From the Balkans as from northern Italy we could bomb Axis war fac- tories, notably Skoda, and those in south Germany and Austria as well as the Ploesti oil fields and even Silesia.
 From the Balkans we could reach the German backdoor by land mountainous land for a while, but less precipitous than the Alps, We could supply and then join with the southern flank of the Red Army for joint advance to the Bohemian bastion that is the key to all cen- tral Europe, including eastern Ger many, and which is peopled by ar- dent anti-Nazi Czechs.
 MANY WOULD WELCOME
 Allied troops would be greeted with flowers from devoted Greece through still resisting Jugoslavia and largely pro-Russian Bulgaria, Also in Rumania, bled white by fighting the Russians; and in Hun gary, which now is looking around anxiously for way out. And Axis troops, in turn, would be harried with bombs and knives. Balkans" mean mountains, and the peninsula is well-named But through the mountains there are few defiles that not only can be forced, but have been. It is argu- able that their forcing by the AL lies in September, 1918 brought the end of World War I. But today more important history night be made If Allied troops took any or all of three routes:
 1. They could cross the Adriatic from Italy to Albania or Jugosla- via, joining hands with patriot forces to help them through the mountains that palisade the coast and through which gaps are few, though they lead eventually to the Hungarian plain.
 AEGEAN ISLES ARE TOUGH
 ?. The same objective lies at the end of the classic invasion route of the Balkans, via Salonica, in Greece and so up the Vardar and Morava valleys, storming Skoplje Pass. which has proven les impregnable than advertised. But first Crete would have to be stormed, and probably some other Aegean isl- ands. These would present tough task, unless Turkey helped.
 3. If Turkey helped. with her l. 100000 hardy fighting men, she would open the third and perhaps the best of the invasion routes. She not only Hanks Aegean islands such as Crete, but her European province of Thrace is a bridgehead made to order and confronted by less diff cult country than the first two routes. By opening the Darda- nelles, she would save us millions of tons of shipping, millions of hours of time in supplying the Red Army's south wing in liaison with which our Balkan invasion would operate.
 TURKEYS WEAKNESSES
 We are supplying Turkey already, but not enough. Her army is still underequipped. her airforce small. and Istanbul is an inflam- mable target for enemy bombing. while that Thracian bridgehead might be cut off by a strongly counter-attacking enemy.
 So Turkey is expected to play very safe. until we have shown via one of the other two routes that we can land in the Balkans and ad- vance. Then Turkey should join, for she wants Aegean islands once hers. but now Italian. And her de- mands will be echoed by Greece and Jugoslavia. while Bulgaria, Rumania and Hungary probably will be in for another Of those maj or operations that Balkan States must continually endure.
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