Evening star., 1943-05-16
Inside Fortress Europe'

Inside Fortress Europe
What Doctor Joseph Goebbels,
head of the Nazi propaganda ma
chine, boastfully calls Fortress
Europe" today presents an extraor-
dinary spectacle. This fortress is
extensive. 1t has an area almost as
large as the continental United
States, inhabited by nearly 100000
900 people. Yet its garrison" con-
sists, at most, of 100000 Germans,
plus an approximately equal num-
Der OF more or less undependable
allies-1talians, Magyars, Slovaks,
Rumanians and Firms, together with
small quotas of "Quislingist" traitors.
Over half of Axis dominated Europe
and its peoples are bitterly opposed
to Hitler's vaunted new order" and
impatiently await the hour of de-
liverance, when the appearance of
Allied armies will give the signal for
mass revolt.
Fortress Europe thus contains in
ternal weakness which partially
nullifies its external strength. The
result is a highly unstable equilib-
rum OF forces, largely psychological
in character. The slightest shock
from without produces volcanic
tremors within. We see this today
in the sharply accelerated volume of
popular resistance and sabotage
evoked by the Axis disaster in Tu-
nisia. All the conquered lands strain
more fiercely against the Nazi yoke.
Holland is momentarily the focus of
unrest. There, Nazi plans for the
reinternment of some 100000 pa
rolled members of the former Dutch
Army as safeguard against pos
sible Allied invasion has thrown the
whole country into riotous turmoil.
But everywhere else, from Norway
to Poland and the Balkans, the story
is substantially the same. The effect
OF all this upon both the resources
and the morale of the Nazi con-
querors must be considerable. Troops
earmarked for the fighting fronts
have to be diverted for guard and
police duty in the occupied terri
tories, and it is known that such
service is not good for soldiers
nerves, diminishing their combat
efficiency. Also, the damage wrought
by sabotage, though usually slight in
individual cases, aggregates enough
to impair German military DISPOSE
tions and calculations.
However, it would. be unWise to
exaggerate the Importance of unrest
and sabotage in the reduction of
Fortress Europe. OF themselves,
these are essentially negative fac
tors. The decisive blows must be
struck by invading armies from east,
west and south, combined with un-
remitting air bombardments to
soften Axis defenses, disrupt it's in
dustrial plant and shatter It's COM
munications. Even when actual
land invasions have begun, mass ris-
ings behind the Axis lines have their
limitations. Except in primitive
mountainous country, guerrillas
armed only with rifles, tommy guns
and grenades cannot long face regu-
lar troops equipped with the COM
plex paraphernalia OF modern war
fare, including tanks and bomb
dropping airplanes. Furthermore,
Europe's subject peoples have been
weakened by years of semi-starva-
ton and the imprisonment or exc
cution of patriotic leaders. Also,
Nazi ruthlessness obviously contem-
plates the mass removal Of potential
fighting men from the invaded areas
and their internment deep within
the Reich. Germany's spokesmen
openly boast that, II Allied armies
establish footholds on the continent,
they will find only devastated and
depopulated terrain in the line OF
their advance.
That is SOLDERING prospect. Yet,
here again, psychological imponder-
ables may work against the diabolism
OF Nazi planning. Subject peoples
menaced with virtual extinction,
even though starving and weapon
less, could generate a mad fury be-
yond rational calculation, while
German nerves could also have their
breaking point II subjected to COM
bined physical and psychic strains
OF unprecedented intensity.