Evening star., 1944-08-23
q WALTER McCALLUN

star War CORRESPONDENT ct Home On Leave.
The German Army Is 80 decimated
and understrength In division or
ganization that military observers
no longer can compare its fighting
strength division for division with
that Of the United Nations.
That Is one reason for the rapid
exploitation Of American successes
in France since we turned the Brit
tany corner at Avranches, and broke
out Of Normandy.
The uch-vaunted German Army,
which overran all of Western
Europe in a few months and pushed
Russia back hundreds of miles, Is
no army Of supermen any more. II
it ever was. The American soldier
is proving himself better lighting
man than the veteran Germans,
who almost won the war for Hitler
in a few months.
Manpower Dwindling.
German military 1nAnpower is at
a low level today. Goebbels is
scraping the bottom Of the man
power barrel with an ersatz home
guard organization being set up for
East Prussia, but even that does not
help the front-line soldier Of the
vaunted Wehrmacht. While Ger
many still may have around $50
divisions intact and in fighting con-
dition (and this is doubtfuD, her
divisions are pretty thin In man
power.
The German division in France
today has between 5000 and 5000
men. 1t used to number around
$4,000, perhaps $4,000. Regiments
are down to 1900 and 1900. Bat
talions are down to 500 and COM
panies are down to around ITO or
120. That seems to be the way it
is all through the German outfits
we saw in France. They simply
didn't have the manpower.
What they had was only fair in
fighting ability. In Normandy we
landed in the middle of German
Army about Is per cent of which
was made up of Poles and Russians,
forced into German uniform by
threats of starvation or reprisals on
relatives. They didn't want to fight
and die, and they surrendered in
droves.
Fourth Hardened Nazis.
Possibly another Is per cent were
hardened troops impregnated with
Nazi doctrines, and willing to die
for them. They died. Only q few
surrendered, and only small per-
centage of the prisoners held to
their view of an ultimate German
victory after looking at the tre-
mendous amount of men and war
materiel we had even in the early
days in France. Cracking the
beachhead was tough enough, but
not as tough as it might have been
had the German been able to quick
ly move up lot of equipment from
the east. That is where Allied air
power came in. The roads and juno
tions were so completely blasted by
our air force that the Germans
simply was not able to get enough
materiel to the expanding front.
On the Allied side of the picture
in the early days, once we estab-
lished the beachheads we rushed
the men and equipment in 50 fast,
and there was so much of it that
the German soon was outnumbered
in men and fighting materiel. The
roads leading inland from the
beaches we're pretty hectic those
early days but most Of them were
one-way affairs. with all the traffic
going inland. To get back to the
beach wasn't easy, but 1t could be
done. The main idea was to get
the men and materiel inland.
Getting Port Facilities.
Now we have the port Of Cher
bourg and soon we will have other
similar ports. The beachhead no
longer is the hectic place it was for
many days after June 6. saw sea
trains, those tremendous transports
which carry loaded freight cars
across the ocean, tied up at the
inner mole at Cherbourg, unloading
their cargoes by slings direct on
French rails. The harbor was full
of American ships. Although some
mined areas still existed when