Evening star., 1949-03-07
U. 5. Army Bo|sters
lis Defense Forces
In Western Austria
By George Weller
Foreign Correspondent Of The Sior and
the Chicago Daily News


the Chicago Daily News
SALZBURG, Austria, Mar. IL
Americas armed front against
Communism has pushed abruptly
eastward into Central Europe.
The United States Army has
ordered heavy artillery and tanks
into Western Austria for defense
against possible Russian attack.
At the same time the Army's
overgroWn administrative brains
have begun to acquire some mill
tary muscles. Seven thousand
caretaking and housekeeping
troops are being reorganized into
skeleton defense-"Division Mi
nus"
Military Expert in Charge.
This week end Maj. Gen. Paul
w. Kendall, commanding West
ern Austria. in whirldWind trip
planned a new strategic location
for mountain batteries covering
passes and inspected retraining
facilities at Zell-am-See.
Gen. Kendall is a military ex-
pert, having assaulted Hitler's
Gothic Line as commander OF the
8sth Division in the Italian cam
paign and destroyed six Nazi
divisions.
When fully organized this sum-
uer, Western Austria will cease
being a military vacuum and Will
be able to oppose at least tenn
porary delaying action to any |
sudden Russian sally westward
through the Danube Valley.
This new stiffening in Austria
is the first evidence that the4
American retreat in the Far East
before the Communist army will
be at least partly compensated by
a holding action in Central Europe.
Relief to Outpost of Vienna.
A move from Vienna into West |
ern Austria by four important
. army bureaus hitherto working
in the disputed capital under the
American top commander in Aus
tria, 1t. Gen. Geofrey Keyes. has
accompanied the new concentra-
ton. The headquarters for the
engineers, medical corps. quarter
master and inspector general are
going to Wells and Linz, leaving IN
Vienna only a token force to up
hold the flag politically.
Three hundred technicians of
Vienna's 3,o0o-man garrison are
accompanying the transfer to in
tegrate the defenses.
Washington's remedy for West
ern Austria's emptiness comes as
welcome relief to the American
outpost in Vienna which, like Ber-
lin, exists on Russian tolerance at
the end of a Soviet corridor. /
Russo American relations in
Vienna are chilly but not openly
hostile and the Soviet controls
but has never strangled the rail- /
road inlet to Vienna in the
fashion which compelled 1.-The =
Berlin airlift to be created.
Short of Artillery.
But gradual encirclement OF
Eastern%.Austria by communism. j
with the faf1 Of the governments
of Hungary and Czecf1oslovakia,
has made the American stand in
Western Austria soft support forf
the undermined American posi-
ton in Vienna in Eastern Austria.
At a military review recently
held here, the forces under Gen.
Kendall "a Siberian veteran
wounded in Italy-were able to
muster only two pieces of artil-
lery. This weakness is now being
remedied. Some 105-mm. and
155-mm. guns are already coming
in.
1t is expected that the Com
munists will Interpret the Amerl-
can remilitarization as a menace
to peace" Actually. the Ameri-
can defenses will be incapable OF
rescuing the American army OF
clerks in Vienna should the capi-
tai become another Berlin.
It is easier for the Russians to
isolate Vienna than Berlin be-
cause no protected airf1eld lies in
side the American sector OF
Vienna.
Soviet Route Challenged.
The strengthened American
forces in Western Austria actually
represent only a temporary land
ing pit for a backward jump from
Vienna under Russian duress.
While our Army here is laying
down skis and ping-pong paddles
for rifles and anti-tank guns, Aus
tria's return to economic health
will continue. Only some instruc-
tors are being brought here and
the change is being accomplished
without harm to Austria's yodel
and dirndl industry.
The Soviet's open route west
ward through the Danube corridor
from Vienna to Munich is now
challenged, however. by its first
American roadblock.