Evening star., 1944-08-05
HitIer's Struteay

oc1uIc OuI AlleQ INVASION OF
France widely held theory was
that if the Nazis ever found them
selves incapable of holding out on
all fronts, they might concentrate
the bulk Of their strength against
Russia, even at the cost of letting
our British and American forces
march into Berlin against token
resistance.
This speculation was predicated on
the assumption that the German
people, because of their Goebbels-
nurtured Russophobia, would prefer
to have the Reich occupied by us.
1t was predicated, too, on the idea
that Hitler, unmindful of the Mos
COW and Teheran agreements, might
resort to such strategy in an effort
to create great military and politi-
cal split between the Soviet Union
on one hand and Britain and the
United States on the other.
Events, however, have knocked the
theory into cooked hat. Up to a
few days ago, at any rate, the Nazis
seemed to be opposing us much more
f1ercely in the West and South than
they were the Red Army in the East,
and certain observers-noting that
some German strength had been
shifted from the Russian front to
Normandy-were beginning to read
all sorts of hidden meanings into the
situation. Thus we were presented
with a new "mystery"-the "mys-
terry" OF why Soviet forces were able
to advance with such astonishing
speed while our Canadian, British
and American forces had to fight a
yard-by-yard struggle in the Coten-
tin Peninsula.
But despite the alleged hidden
meanings, simple military facts, and
not some super-subtle Nazi strategy,
may be enough to explain the
"mystifying" contrast between the
rapidity of the Russian advance and
the relative slowness of ours Ofiicial
Berlin sources have themselves de-
clared that when the Red Army's
offensive began a bit more than a
month ago, the direction and weight
OF its initial blows took the German
commanders by surprise, and it is
just barely possible that that sur
prise was great enough to force them
to fall back as fast as possible, in
the hope OF saving the bulk of their
troops for a last desperate battle
near their home bases. with Soviet
forces operating under the disad-
vantage of extended lines of supply.
Our Allied armies in France, on
the other hand, unlike the Russians
who have vast spaces in which to
maneuver and who are operating
directly from their own country,
have had to do a great deal more
than launch an offensive since June
6. Since that historic day they have
had to cross the treacherous English
Channel. breach the vaunted "At-
lantic WALL" establish and expand
beachheads, win and recondition the
ports of Cherbourg and Caen, and
finally cut loose to break out of the
narrow confines of the Cotentin
Peninsula to win sufficient "elbow
room" for a grand-scale drive. The
task confronting them. in other
words, has been considerably differ
ent from the one confronting the
Red Army, SO that any comparison
between speeds is misleading. More
over. as current news indicates, the
tempo OF our advance in the West
is beginning to equal the Russian.
In fact. having gone so far and so
fast already, the Russians may soon
be temporarily slowed down while
our British Canadian American
forces click off the gains.
The simple fact, not the subtle
one, may indeed be the true ex-
planation-the simple fact that Hit
Ter a few weeks ago may have
thought himself able to throw us
out Of Normandy back into the sea,
then to turn with full force on
Russia. He knows better now. On
all fronts, however subtle it may be,
his strategy is a strategy of retreat
without hope. At Moscow and Te-
heran, the might of Britain, Russia
and America was forged into one
weapon, and it is hammering the
enemy to death now from every
direction. In the circumstances-
from the viewpoint of the Nazis at
least-it seems to matter little which
Of the Allied armies is the first to
march into Berlin. They will all be
there sooner or later.