The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1944-09-04
German Am,yShrinking
By JOSEPH C. HARsCH

BY JOSEPH C.. HARSCH
We have come now to the last scene in the
drama of the second great war in Europe. In
some respect it is a repeat performance OF
the last war; But in one essential respect il
is different :
| Without any doubt Germany is much more
decisively defeated today than it was on the
eleventh OF November, 1918. At that time the
German armies were strained by casualties,
food was running out, equipment was badly
worn. and requirements were dwindling to a
trickle. Yet Germany still had military assets
, which do not exist today.
The organization of the army itself was in.
tact. There had been no mass surrender OF
whole divisions as at Stalingrad nor the COM
plete liquidation of whole army comparable
to what has just happened to the German
Seventh Army in Normandy. Broadly speak
ing, the German army of late 1918 counted as
many divisions as it did in 1915 and 1916. It
was still the biggest single army in the world
and it was fighting only a one-front war Rus
STA had surrendered and become an occupation
problem. 1t was a drain on German resources
but it had ceased to be a combat front de-
handing the presence of first-line combat
troops. Almost to the end, Germany remained
in possession OF the empire of conquest it held
at the peak of its power. Yet despite this re-
latively favorable position in late 1915 the
whole structure suddenly snapped like an over
strained rubber band.
This time. much more damage has already
been done to the German position When the
grand assault began this spring from three di,
rections, Germany mounted an army of nearly
300 divisions along the fronts. Certainly thirty
and perhaps as many as fifty have melted
away by now in France and Italy and it is
reasonable to suppose that the fearful disasters
of the summer campaign In Russia have cost
at least as much. Today It can scarcely be
twothirds of the army It was in June.
More damaging. even, than that has been
the drastic liquidation Of its economic re.
sources as the result of lost battles. The army
Germany had modified by this June was an
army much too large for Germany itself to
support in the field. It could live only by the
addition of the food and ores and oils of the
entire continent to what comes from inside
Germany. 1t was built on the expectation of
being able to draw uninterruptedly on the re.
sources of everything from the Mediterranean
to the North Sea and rom the BAY of Biscay
at least to the line of the Dnieper deep inside
Russia.
Of that economic treasure house. Germany
today commands almost nothing beyond its
own borders. 1t gets nothing from the Span
Ism peninsula France or Italy, The Balkans
are drying up visbly by the hour. Russia is
gone and so, too, most of Poland The ne,,-
trails are cutting loose from the German or.
DIT. Within matter of days it can be expected
that the careful business men Of Switzerland
and Sweden will stop almost all deliveries to
Germany. The German army, in other words
IS already trying to subsist on an area which
is not large enough by half to supply its needs
elther In quantity or quality. 1t is shrinking
rapidly. itself, but not nearly as rapidly as the
IND nh fs-I.l:
sumes.
And yet this German army Is still carrying
on the fight and gives every indication of plan.
ning TO try to carry it on for last desperate
stand. 1t has succeeded in stabilizing its East
ern front along the line Of the Vistula since the
1irst OF July. It is trying now to stabilize its
western front, presumably along the Rhine
and into the Low Countries. 1t can, and prob
ably is now, pulling back its Italian and Bal
kan fronts to the Alps and their projection
through Slovakia to the Carpathians.
This, then, is clearly a very different Ger
many than the Kaisers Reich of 1918 which
deliberately cut its losses when the jig was up
and called off the effort. The antagonist is the
same man. He has been backed into worse
corner and his position is more helpless. But
his behavior is different. The time before he
chose to go to Jail expectingsto be. able to saw
the bars later on and escape as he did. This
time he is not the calculating businessman
whse trade is conquest by war. He is the coner-
ed animal snarling and slashing at the pack
closing around him. Having decided to grant no
quarter and to allow no mercy, he expects
none from his intended victims. 1t is not our
unconditional surrender slogan nor our in
tentions which have driven him to this It is
the guilt complex of man who can conceive of
no end for himself than the end he planned
for others.
! This play is ending as the great morality
play of the era-the drama of evil literallv
driving itself to its own destruction. = Chris
| tan Science Monitor.
In the last war Americans were said to need
good five-cent cigar In this one all thew
need is their favorite cigaret back.
i -V-
An fastener set a record eating AZ bananas
4 in As minutes The miracle is-where did he
getem?
| -V
What do the Germans hope to get out of this
war, asks an editorial. Well, so far, they've
gotten out of Rhone and Paris