Evening star., 1945-01-28
BY LOUIS P. LOCHNER.

BY LOUIS r. LOCHNER,
Former Chief Of the Associated Press
Berlin Bureau.
PARIS, Jan. 27.-Should Berlin
fall soon-before the Allies have
smashed through the Siegfried Line
German resistance, according to
all indications, would nevertheless
continue.
Hitler would still have tremen-
dous industrial areas at his disposal
for continuing the manufacture Of
war essentials.
Directly southwest Of Berlin lie
centers like Dresden, ChemnitZ,
Leipzig and Merseberg with its gi-
gantic Leuna plant, and Dessau,
famed for its Junkers airplane
works.
West of Berlin are Magdeburg,
Brunswick and Hanover, all i'm
portant producers of munitions, tires
and trucks. Despite heavy bomb.
ing, Ruhr industries continue to
produce.
Two other areas ordinarily not
associated with manufacture in the
popular mind have become Hitler's
arsenals. One Is the Thuringian
forest, in Central Germany south
west Of Berlin, where the Nazis have
many plants hidden under CEN
turies-old trees. Another is the So
called Luneburg heather, roughly
south of Hamburg and Bremen and
north of Hanover.
New Capital Suggested.
Hanover would be the logical
seat Of government, though Danes
fear the Hitlerites may decide to
make Copenhagen their temporary
capital.
There is another factor for con-
tinued warfare besides the pos
sibility of manufacture, despite the
painful loss of Silesia and industries
transplanted to the Czech protec-
torate and the Polish government
general. That factor is the long
training of young Nazis for just
such an eventuality.
Castles Of the order" (Ordens-
burgen) originally designed for
training picked young Hitlerites fol-
future leadership, are now devoted
entirely to three month courses in
combating the enemy in case re-
gular armies should be routed.
The training consists chiefly o!
handling explosives and BOBBY traps
and the like, use of firearms, read
ing maps, studying the terrain anc
constructing self-made bombs from
magnesium and petroleum.
Resistance Units Studied.
A special feature of this training
is the careful study of how resistance
movements such as the French
maquis, Yugoslay partisans ane
Danish underground managed X
lgive the Nazis such trouble.
Just as the Nazis carefully studied
Communist underground politica
methods and applied them in re-
publican Germany to undermine tn,
Weimar state, SO they now study
resistance technique with a yiev
toward using it against the United
Nations.
For that reason it would seem tt
this writer to be wishful thinking
to expect the regime to fold up aftel
Berlin's fall.
Anything may happen in German,
at any time, but the odds are TO-
a hard struggle ahead despite tn,
Russian advances. This is shown
by the fact that Won Rundstedt a.
this very moment, when Nazilant
is being hardest pressed, has startet
an offensive in Alsace.
Meanwhile, Berlin hasn't faller
yet. The Russians themselves con.
servatively speak of spring. There
is the danger of extending suppl,
lines too far if they keep up the
present pace without letup.
! Prussia Written OFF.
The Germans, on their part, seen
to have prepared to give up Eas
Prussia but to try to stop the enemy
at the frontier of Pomerania, the
northern province adjoining Poland
/ At the beginning of 1885 the Nazi.
constructed a miniature Siegfriet
Line stretching roughly to Schnei
demuhl, on the German-Polish from.
tier about 125 miles south Of tn,
Baltic. While not as formidabl,
as the West Wall, it is staggered il
depth up to SO miles. 1t shoulc
offer considerable resistance. Tn,
bunkers have been purposely blended
l into the landscape.
/ What might be between Berlin
and Silesia? That is difficult fol
me to answer. Flying from Berlin
to Gleiwitz at the start of tn,
present war, I found and counted
over a dozen belts of fax position.
but saw nothing looking like lane
Notifications.
Oder Is Natural Defense.
Until leaving Germany in May
1912, never heard anybody speal
of working on Notifications ir
Northwest Silesia, although thu
Nazis liked to boast of having al
ranks of German people working or
defenses.
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