ALLIES HOLD ON AGAINST GERMAN DRIVE. A Norwegian communique distributed by the British news agency Reuters on Monday says that Norwegian troops have halted at Kvam a German force driving northwestward toward Dombas. This battle, in south central Norway, is significant because German control of Dombas would rob the Allies of their life-line in that region, the railroad line from Dombas to Stoeren. The Associated Press dispatch Monday said that British and Norwegian troops are “threatened in the flank by German units that have attempted to scale the mountain passes leading from the Oesterdal, East Norwegian valley, to the Dombas-Trondheim railroad.” But the Allies have managed to hold off the threat so far while maintaining their communications. A second Nazi advance northward through eastern Norway has been checked for the moment as well. One can hope that a Nazi break-through, which looked likely over week-end, has been averted for the moment.
One bad sign -- late radio bulletins say the Germans have sent five separate columns to take Dombas, and they have closed to within thirteen miles of the town. One good sign -- another A.P. report from Monday says that “thousands” more British troops have been landed around Namsos, even though Monday’s New York Herald Tribune says that the unlucky port of 4,000 residents has been “leveled” by merciless German bombings. “Not a single building remains in this once picturesque town,” says an eyewitness.
NORWAY INVASION A MERE “FEINT”? There’s an interesting editorial in Monday’s Chicago Tribune theorizing that Hitler’s invasion of Norway was chiefly a feint, designed to draw the British Navy away from parts of Europe the Nazis are more interested in attacking --
“If the German maneuver was merely a feint, undertaken perhaps in anticipation of a British occupation of strategic ports in Norway, Hitler’s main purpose must have been to pin a substantial part of the British navy to the Norwegian coast to prevent reinforcements and supplies from reaching the invading German army. While much of the British fleet was thus fully occupied in northern waters the Germans might move into the Balkans, or, with the support of the Italians and perhaps the Russians as well, might start operations in the Mediterranean region. In these circumstances the British might find it difficult or perhaps impossible for the British to reinforce their naval units in either theater. If the Germans should follow the Scandinavian stroke with an invasion of the low countries in force with a view to turning the flank of the Maginot Line, the British fleet might find itself so heavily occupied elsewhere that it could not interfere successfully with German landing operations on the Dutch or Belgian coast. In any event the diversion of British and French troops to Norway in numbers sufficient to oust the Germans would hamper the defense in Belgium and Holland.”
My theory is that, yes, the Germans chose Norway to insure continuation of their ore shipments from Sweden, but also in large part because Hitler is a bully who likes easy targets. And the Norwegian armed forces were obviously much weaker than the 800,000-man Swedish army. For that same reason, I think if Hitler invades anyone else this spring, it will be another “cheap” objective, most likely Holland. The Nazis could make much use of Holland’s air bases to stage bombing attacks on Britain, and there’s not much that the massive Allied forces guarding the borders of France could do to protect the Dutch. But it still seems unlikely Hitler will move against France -- not this year, maybe not ever.
CHAMBERLAIN FEELS THE HEAT. Two reports Monday say that critics of Prime Minister Chamberlain’s handling of Norway are making this a “difficult week” for the British government. James. B. Reston writes from London for the New York Times that Allied reversals last week at Steinkjer, north of Trondheim, and in the Gudbrandsdal Valley have spurred a burst of criticism in the Sunday papers and raised the prospect of some tough questioning in Parliament. “There has been a lot of talk here,” says Mr. Reston, “about troops being sent to Norway too soon, without sufficient artillery and without adequate fighter planes, anti-aircraft guns or reinforcements.”
But Larry Rue reports somewhat cynically in the Chicago Tribune that the complainers don’t see themselves as having any impact on the makeup or direction of the Chamberlain regime. He writes, “Prospects for any radical changes in the government resulting from the criticism are not regarded any too hopefully. Peter Howard, political writer, deplored the alleged fact that ‘parliamentary benches on both sides of the house are packed with mediocrities.’”
“UNPREPAREDNESS” HURT NORWAY. After a few hundred news stories blamed the German advance into Norway on “quislings” (a newly-coined word for traitor, after treasonous Norwegian Major Vidkun Quisling), the press seems to be reconsidering. For instance, an editorial in Monday’s Washington Post says that Norwegian troops are sadly outclassed in the means of fighting a modern war. And it didn’t have to be this way --
“Confronting an enemy which is infinitely better armed, the Norwegian troops for all their bravery, have proved inadequate to the task before them. There are obviously not enough of them, even counting Allied reinforcements, to cover every possible German avenue of advance. Equipped for the most part only with rifles, they have been no match for the mechanized units of the invaders. No doubt it was this very Norwegian unpreparedness which encouraged Hitler....Had the Norwegians been better prepared they could have made their country an all but impregnable fortress, vulnerable only to large-scale and expensive operations. But Norway had for many decades enjoyed the deep dream of peace. She felt herself safe behind the barrier of an impeccable neutrality.”
And Otto D. Tolischus writes in a Sunday New York Times opinion piece that Major Quisling was really “a Don Quixote figure in Norwegian politics whom nobody took seriously,” and who grossly exaggerated his importance to the Germans, who have already tossed him aside. “The fact is that Norway had been so taken by surprise that she had no time for mobilization,” Mr. Tolischus writes. “And this wholly unmobilized state of the Norwegian defense forces is adduced as the reason for most of the later military debacle that Major Quisling ordered and his adherents aggravated, though neither he nor his adherents were of sufficient caliber to organize it or cause it.”
NORWAY FREE OF NAZIS LATER THIS YEAR? Herbert Rosinski, a London-based military expert who once lectured at the German Military Academy, has extensively studied just how much longer the German war machine can fight at its current level of manpower and supplies. He writes in Sunday’s New York Times that the Allies are still in a position to end the European war on their terms by the autumn of 1941 and still have a chance of booting the Nazis out of Norway before the end of this year --
“The desperate efforts made by the Germans to retrieve their precarious position in Norway and the considerable foothold gained by them make it unlikely that the Allies will be able to clear Norway before Autumn, despite the advantages of overwhelming superiority at sea and the assistance of the Norwegian people. This again points to the Spring of 1941 as the date when conditions for a decisive Allied offensive can be fulfilled.”
AMERICANS ARE ANTI-NAZI, BUT ANTI-WAR. In Sunday’s Washington Post, Dr. Gallup takes a look at how U.S. citizens feel about the invasion of Norway. Overwhelmingly, the response is -- “yes, we condemn Nazi aggression, and no, we don’t want to fight Germany.” Only 7% of those responding to the survey say that Germany was “justified” in sending her troops against Denmark and Norway, while 93% say she wasn’t. But only 3.7% of Americans say the U.S. should fight the Nazis. That compares with 3.5% who advocated war with Germany in a December survey. No doubt the isolationists will make much of such numbers, as they continue to accuse the Roosevelt administration of advocating what a mere 3.7% of U.S. citizens support.
Saturday, April 30, 2016
Thursday, April 28, 2016
Sunday, April 28, 1940
SEESAW BATTLES IN NORWAY... The Norway headlines for the last three days have gone back and forth. It was bad news on Thursday in the Washington Post -- “Nazi Thrust Threatens To Trap Allied Column”. Then, on Friday, the news turned good -- the Post headline read “Nazi Columns Retreat”, and the Chicago Tribune blared in its usual eight-column banner, “Nazis Fall Back 15 Miles.” And on Saturday it was back to bad news again. The New York Herald Tribune’s big headline read, “British Again Forced To Retreat.” Beyond this daily back-and-forth, there’s been no clear picture of what’s going on. As the Herald Tribune editorialized on Friday, “All the significant data on which to base an estimate of the actual situation are totally wanting.”
Part of the problem is the terrain, which doesn’t lend itself to modern communications. Also, it might be easier to know what’s going on if the combatants were fighting on a single line, instead of three separate fronts. One front is in the vicinity of Nazi-occupied southwestern Norway, where German columns are advancing from Kvam (about 100 miles north of Oslo) and Roros (200 miles north of Oslo). British and French troops arriving at the port of Andalsnes, northwest of Kvam, have rushed eastward to try and blunt these twin Nazi thrusts. The second front surrounds the port of Trondheim farther north, where German forces in the Trondheim area are being opposed by one Allied force moving south from the port of Namsos and another Allied army heading north from Andalsnes. And the third front is much farther north, at Narvik, where 2,000 German troops continue to battle British and Norwegian units.
...BUT HITLER MAY BE GETTING THE UPPER HAND. The stories in Saturday’s papers and radio bulletins through this morning are the most alarming yet. Most significant is a new German breakthrough at Roros, which the Nazis had seized for a few hours last Wednesday before being thrown back by an Allied counter-attack. But according to Otto D. Tolischus in Saturday’s New York Times, this same Nazi column once again smashed through Roros on Friday and is only some sixty miles away from the German troops in Trondheim. Bulletins from the last few hours say that same German force has advanced fifty miles in the last day, and is now turned westward toward the Dombas-Trondheim railway to try and cut off the British and Norwegian troops south of Trondheim.
About the best news for the Allies this week-end is a United Press report that French Foreign Legion troops from Africa have inflicted “heavy losses” on German troops north of Trondheim, though the Nazis lines there are holding firm. This is the second time the Allies have hit Steinkjer, after a British push was repulsed there earlier this week. Meanwhile, British antiaircraft batteries shot down six German planes Friday. The Luftwaffe has so far given the Germans a murderous advantage in the land battles, although the British themselves have done some bombing of late, hitting a convoy of Nazi supply ships and an encampment of troops south of Bergen late in the week.
MEANWHILE, ON THE WESTERN FRONT. Saturday’s New York Herald Tribune notes a Nazi blunder --
“On the western front Nazis have this sign on trees: ‘Property of German War Department. Englishmen, Frenchmen, dogs, keep out.’ If an irate Tommy or poilu were to tear down the sign, he would be blown to bits by a mine wired to it. However, the Germans practically nullified their scheme by printing the signs in German.”
THE BRITISH PAPERS ARE UNHAPPY. Larry Rue reports in Saturday’s Chicago Tribune that Britain’s press is angry after the Ministry of Information issued a handout Friday admitting that Hitler “has taken the first trick in Norway.” This comes after two weeks of silence following the initial British landings on the Norwegian coast, and the wildly optimistic headlines in their wake --
“Despite the failure of the government to issue a detailed communique since the naval victory at Narvik on April 13, the people have been led to believe that triumphs beyond the highest hopes were achieved in operations in Norway and that the only reason for official reticence was the necessity of keeping secrets from Germany....The newspapers have been featuring stories of great successes and even had allied troops capturing Hamar, not far from Oslo. Now the same papers which printed those reports from Stockholm correspondents are furious because they were not true and are bitterly critical of the conduct of the military operation in Norway....The Daily Herald scolds the government for believing the ‘public wants comfort rather than news.’”
“A SETBACK, NOT A DISASTER.” Writing in Friday's New York Herald Tribune, Major George Fielding Eliot believes that the reports about British troops suffering a “major disaster” earlier this week north of Trondheim, at Steinkjer, are “unjustified.” He explains, as others have this week, that the real battle is yet to come --
“I think it may be well to keep in mind at this time that up to the present the land fighting in Norway between German and Allied forces has been of what might be called a preliminary nature: in general, a race by advance guards and detached motorized elements to seize important key positions for the benefit of larger forces which may be expected to come after them. Owing to the rugged nature of the Norwegian terrain and the resultant dearth of communications, these key points, if they command important rail or road routes, are likely to be of proportionally greater value than in less difficult country....War cannot be made without losing men, and we are by no means as yet at a decisive point in the struggle for possession of Trondheim. One point does stand out, as we have repeatedly said: the Allies must have air support if they are going to succeed. It is hardly to be supposed that this has been overlooked by the Allied high command.”
WILL A TRAP BE SPRUNG ON THE BRITISH? Sigrid Schultz writes from Berlin in Saturday’s Chicago Tribune that the Germans seem to be trying to do just that. Miss Schultz says the war in Norway appears to be heading for a terrific climax in the Trondheim region, with “the Germans, and the British, French, and Norwegians...rushing warplanes and additional troops to that district.” The pivotal fighting could take place in the Gudbrandsdal Valley, south of Trondheim –
“If the Germans repeat the strategy used with such success in Poland they will attempt to lure their enemy into one of the Norwegian valleys, such as the Gudbrandsdal, bottle them up, and then annihilate their opponents with aerial bombs and machine guns. Nazi planes now are destroying every point of importance in the Gudbrandsdal valley.”
CHAMBERLAIN NOT AS POPULAR. It can’t be said yet that Britons are turning against their Prime Minister. But Dr. Gallup reports in Friday’s Washington Post that Neville Chamberlain’s popularity is now at its lowest point since the start of the war, according to a new survey. He still commands a solid majority of public sentiment -- 61% of those expressing an opinion in a recent survey continue to support him. But that’s down from 66% six weeks ago, and 71% last December.
DON’T FORGET DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME. If your town follows daylight savings time, don’t forget that it started today at 2 a.m. -- so, set your clocks forward one hour. More than thirty million Americans in fifteen states are now following the practice, which goes from now until Sept. 29.
The Chicago Tribune says that Chicagoans “will receive a total of 154 extra hours of sunlight” while D.S.T. is in effect, but...surely the editors realize that isn’t really true? One can but hope.
Part of the problem is the terrain, which doesn’t lend itself to modern communications. Also, it might be easier to know what’s going on if the combatants were fighting on a single line, instead of three separate fronts. One front is in the vicinity of Nazi-occupied southwestern Norway, where German columns are advancing from Kvam (about 100 miles north of Oslo) and Roros (200 miles north of Oslo). British and French troops arriving at the port of Andalsnes, northwest of Kvam, have rushed eastward to try and blunt these twin Nazi thrusts. The second front surrounds the port of Trondheim farther north, where German forces in the Trondheim area are being opposed by one Allied force moving south from the port of Namsos and another Allied army heading north from Andalsnes. And the third front is much farther north, at Narvik, where 2,000 German troops continue to battle British and Norwegian units.
...BUT HITLER MAY BE GETTING THE UPPER HAND. The stories in Saturday’s papers and radio bulletins through this morning are the most alarming yet. Most significant is a new German breakthrough at Roros, which the Nazis had seized for a few hours last Wednesday before being thrown back by an Allied counter-attack. But according to Otto D. Tolischus in Saturday’s New York Times, this same Nazi column once again smashed through Roros on Friday and is only some sixty miles away from the German troops in Trondheim. Bulletins from the last few hours say that same German force has advanced fifty miles in the last day, and is now turned westward toward the Dombas-Trondheim railway to try and cut off the British and Norwegian troops south of Trondheim.
About the best news for the Allies this week-end is a United Press report that French Foreign Legion troops from Africa have inflicted “heavy losses” on German troops north of Trondheim, though the Nazis lines there are holding firm. This is the second time the Allies have hit Steinkjer, after a British push was repulsed there earlier this week. Meanwhile, British antiaircraft batteries shot down six German planes Friday. The Luftwaffe has so far given the Germans a murderous advantage in the land battles, although the British themselves have done some bombing of late, hitting a convoy of Nazi supply ships and an encampment of troops south of Bergen late in the week.
MEANWHILE, ON THE WESTERN FRONT. Saturday’s New York Herald Tribune notes a Nazi blunder --
“On the western front Nazis have this sign on trees: ‘Property of German War Department. Englishmen, Frenchmen, dogs, keep out.’ If an irate Tommy or poilu were to tear down the sign, he would be blown to bits by a mine wired to it. However, the Germans practically nullified their scheme by printing the signs in German.”
THE BRITISH PAPERS ARE UNHAPPY. Larry Rue reports in Saturday’s Chicago Tribune that Britain’s press is angry after the Ministry of Information issued a handout Friday admitting that Hitler “has taken the first trick in Norway.” This comes after two weeks of silence following the initial British landings on the Norwegian coast, and the wildly optimistic headlines in their wake --
“Despite the failure of the government to issue a detailed communique since the naval victory at Narvik on April 13, the people have been led to believe that triumphs beyond the highest hopes were achieved in operations in Norway and that the only reason for official reticence was the necessity of keeping secrets from Germany....The newspapers have been featuring stories of great successes and even had allied troops capturing Hamar, not far from Oslo. Now the same papers which printed those reports from Stockholm correspondents are furious because they were not true and are bitterly critical of the conduct of the military operation in Norway....The Daily Herald scolds the government for believing the ‘public wants comfort rather than news.’”
“A SETBACK, NOT A DISASTER.” Writing in Friday's New York Herald Tribune, Major George Fielding Eliot believes that the reports about British troops suffering a “major disaster” earlier this week north of Trondheim, at Steinkjer, are “unjustified.” He explains, as others have this week, that the real battle is yet to come --
“I think it may be well to keep in mind at this time that up to the present the land fighting in Norway between German and Allied forces has been of what might be called a preliminary nature: in general, a race by advance guards and detached motorized elements to seize important key positions for the benefit of larger forces which may be expected to come after them. Owing to the rugged nature of the Norwegian terrain and the resultant dearth of communications, these key points, if they command important rail or road routes, are likely to be of proportionally greater value than in less difficult country....War cannot be made without losing men, and we are by no means as yet at a decisive point in the struggle for possession of Trondheim. One point does stand out, as we have repeatedly said: the Allies must have air support if they are going to succeed. It is hardly to be supposed that this has been overlooked by the Allied high command.”
WILL A TRAP BE SPRUNG ON THE BRITISH? Sigrid Schultz writes from Berlin in Saturday’s Chicago Tribune that the Germans seem to be trying to do just that. Miss Schultz says the war in Norway appears to be heading for a terrific climax in the Trondheim region, with “the Germans, and the British, French, and Norwegians...rushing warplanes and additional troops to that district.” The pivotal fighting could take place in the Gudbrandsdal Valley, south of Trondheim –
“If the Germans repeat the strategy used with such success in Poland they will attempt to lure their enemy into one of the Norwegian valleys, such as the Gudbrandsdal, bottle them up, and then annihilate their opponents with aerial bombs and machine guns. Nazi planes now are destroying every point of importance in the Gudbrandsdal valley.”
CHAMBERLAIN NOT AS POPULAR. It can’t be said yet that Britons are turning against their Prime Minister. But Dr. Gallup reports in Friday’s Washington Post that Neville Chamberlain’s popularity is now at its lowest point since the start of the war, according to a new survey. He still commands a solid majority of public sentiment -- 61% of those expressing an opinion in a recent survey continue to support him. But that’s down from 66% six weeks ago, and 71% last December.
DON’T FORGET DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME. If your town follows daylight savings time, don’t forget that it started today at 2 a.m. -- so, set your clocks forward one hour. More than thirty million Americans in fifteen states are now following the practice, which goes from now until Sept. 29.
The Chicago Tribune says that Chicagoans “will receive a total of 154 extra hours of sunlight” while D.S.T. is in effect, but...surely the editors realize that isn’t really true? One can but hope.
Monday, April 25, 2016
Thursday, April 25, 1940
TWO BATTLES COULD DECIDE NORWAY’S FATE. Otto D. Tolischus writes in Wednesday’s New York Times that the struggle over Norway might be decided by two major battles going on right now. The first battle, north of Oslo, involves British and Norwegian forces moving south from Lillehammer, in a drive toward German positions at Hamar. The second fight is taking place north of the port of Trondheim, where a day ago the British were reported to have advanced to within 15 miles of that city. In both sectors the Germans are using motorized troops.
Who’s winning? Mr. Tolischus insists it’s too early to tell, but his article gives a lot of space to German claims of “a major Allied reverse” in the fighting south of Lillehammer. The Nazis insist they have in fact taken Lillehammer, attacking with mobile armored forces from the west, and cutting off the Allied armies in the rear. “If the German claims are true the Allied troops...may find themselves caught in a bag,” according to the Times. The Germans are also reportedly trying a flanking maneuver in the action near Trondheim, landing troops on the Inderoy Peninsula south of Steinkjer. And Sigrid Schultz gives a similar account from Berlin in Wednesday’s Chicago Tribune. Citing the German high command, she reports that a campaign to “encircle and annihilate” the Allied forces is “in full swing.”
Another reason for worry -- Edward R. Murrow said from London in his C.B.S. broadcast the other night that Britons would “be grateful for a little more news” on how the fighting in Norway is really going. The optimistic headlines in so many British newspapers about the Allied expeditionary force moving ahead, seizing towns from the Germans, etc., are based on “unsubstantial support,” he says. He didn’t quite say those stories were lies, but came a little too close for comfort.
SWEDEN NOW THE “NO. 1 DANGER SPOT”? It seems like every day now the papers come to a different conclusion about which country the Germans will invade next. Last week everybody seemed to agree it was Holland. Then, a couple of days ago there were several alarming stories about Yugoslavia. And now, suddenly late this week the press focus has shifted to Sweden. But this time it just might be true.
Writing from Paris, David Darrsh trumpets the menace to Sweden in Wednesday’s Chicago Tribune, quoting a French source who says the danger of Nazi invasion has become “more precise.” And John Elliott writes in Wednesday’s New York Herald Tribune that sources at the Allied Supreme War Council in Paris have expressed “grave fears” that Sweden is next on Hitler’s list. There are reports, Mr. Elliott says, of “large German troop concentrations along the German-Baltic coast and on the island of Bornholm, a Danish possession in the Baltic which was seized by the Nazis when they overran Denmark.”
Paris sources have been wrong before on Hitler’s plans, but Harold Callender of the New York Times adds an ominous note in Wednesday’s editions -- the German press has suddenly taken on “a strong anti-Swedish tone.” Specifically, Nazi papers have begun complaining that the Swedish press has been running stories of Nazi atrocities in Norway, such as the machine-gunning of civilians. The Nazis accuse the Swedish government of “tolerating” such criticism, which has to stop “before it is too late.” It’s the same kind of stuff Dr. Goebbels served up just before the Germans invaded Czecho-Slovakia and Poland. Will it lead to the same result?
SWEDEN “HITLER’S NEXT MOVE”? Barnet Nover, in his Wednesday Washington Post column, list some good reasons why it’s not in Germany’s interest to invade Sweden. And then he explains why Hitler will probably do it anyway --
“There are sound economic reasons why Germany should continue to respect Swedish neutrality. Sweden is the great German supply source for high grade ore without which her indispensable munitions and machine tool industries would be forced to work at a greatly reduced pace. Cut off from the Allies as a result of the struggle in Norway, Sweden now belongs almost wholly within the economic orbit of the Third Reich. Brought into the war as a result of a German invasion, the disorganization of Sweden’s economic life that would inevitably follow, particularly if she chose to resist, would certainly outlast the victory that Germany might achieve. But Hitler is no longer basing his war strategy on economic considerations. He is now moved by purely military considerations. Which means that he must win soon if he is to win at all. And if he is to win soon it must be by virtue of the application of overwhelming force regardless of the cost of lives, and the depletion of irreplaceable reserves.”
ITALY’S VULNERABILITIES. Dorothy Thompson joins all the other columnists who’ve been piling on Italy lately, writing about Italian military weaknesses in the New York Herald Tribune on Wednesday –
“[Italy] claims that she can mobilize 8,000,000 men, but she certainly would not equip them. Even her present army of a million is inadequately equipped. Indeed, that fact about the equipment of the army brought about the drastic changes in the army command which Mussolini instituted last fall. A considerable army is tied up in Albania, and another in Abyssinia, an Achilles’ heel for Italy....The industrial areas of Italy are concentrated in the north around Milan and Turin, near the French frontier, and are more exposed than the industrial areas of any other major power. This is certainly one reason why 99 per cent of the industrialists of Italy are vigorously against Italy going into the war.”
Miss Thompson adds that Mussolini’s regime does have some military value to Hitler -- “Italy’s nuisance power is great. She has a strong submarine fleet and can certainly make the Allies a great deal of trouble in the Mediterranean. In case the Germans make an offensive her army on the northwest border would at least divert some Allied troops, even if she didn’t use it. Her control of the Adriatic interferes with the British blockade and there are grave leakages through the Adriatic to Germany.” But much of that might be negated by one other fact about Italy -- “Her people...are tired and want peace.”
ARE DEMOCRATS THE “WAR PARTY”? Attempts by some Republican isolationists in Congress to portray the G.O.P. as the “peace party” and the Democrats as the “war party” haven’t had much effect, according to a Gallup poll published in Wednesday’s Washington Post. A new national survey shows that 33% of voters believed the Republicans are “more likely” to keep the U.S. out of war, while 35% feel that way about the Democrats. A total of 32% hold it makes “no difference” which party is in power in this respect. The only real change in these numbers since December is a marked decrease in the number of those in the “no difference” category -- but it’s certainly not surprising that people would become more partisan during an election year.
Who’s winning? Mr. Tolischus insists it’s too early to tell, but his article gives a lot of space to German claims of “a major Allied reverse” in the fighting south of Lillehammer. The Nazis insist they have in fact taken Lillehammer, attacking with mobile armored forces from the west, and cutting off the Allied armies in the rear. “If the German claims are true the Allied troops...may find themselves caught in a bag,” according to the Times. The Germans are also reportedly trying a flanking maneuver in the action near Trondheim, landing troops on the Inderoy Peninsula south of Steinkjer. And Sigrid Schultz gives a similar account from Berlin in Wednesday’s Chicago Tribune. Citing the German high command, she reports that a campaign to “encircle and annihilate” the Allied forces is “in full swing.”
Another reason for worry -- Edward R. Murrow said from London in his C.B.S. broadcast the other night that Britons would “be grateful for a little more news” on how the fighting in Norway is really going. The optimistic headlines in so many British newspapers about the Allied expeditionary force moving ahead, seizing towns from the Germans, etc., are based on “unsubstantial support,” he says. He didn’t quite say those stories were lies, but came a little too close for comfort.
SWEDEN NOW THE “NO. 1 DANGER SPOT”? It seems like every day now the papers come to a different conclusion about which country the Germans will invade next. Last week everybody seemed to agree it was Holland. Then, a couple of days ago there were several alarming stories about Yugoslavia. And now, suddenly late this week the press focus has shifted to Sweden. But this time it just might be true.
Writing from Paris, David Darrsh trumpets the menace to Sweden in Wednesday’s Chicago Tribune, quoting a French source who says the danger of Nazi invasion has become “more precise.” And John Elliott writes in Wednesday’s New York Herald Tribune that sources at the Allied Supreme War Council in Paris have expressed “grave fears” that Sweden is next on Hitler’s list. There are reports, Mr. Elliott says, of “large German troop concentrations along the German-Baltic coast and on the island of Bornholm, a Danish possession in the Baltic which was seized by the Nazis when they overran Denmark.”
Paris sources have been wrong before on Hitler’s plans, but Harold Callender of the New York Times adds an ominous note in Wednesday’s editions -- the German press has suddenly taken on “a strong anti-Swedish tone.” Specifically, Nazi papers have begun complaining that the Swedish press has been running stories of Nazi atrocities in Norway, such as the machine-gunning of civilians. The Nazis accuse the Swedish government of “tolerating” such criticism, which has to stop “before it is too late.” It’s the same kind of stuff Dr. Goebbels served up just before the Germans invaded Czecho-Slovakia and Poland. Will it lead to the same result?
SWEDEN “HITLER’S NEXT MOVE”? Barnet Nover, in his Wednesday Washington Post column, list some good reasons why it’s not in Germany’s interest to invade Sweden. And then he explains why Hitler will probably do it anyway --
“There are sound economic reasons why Germany should continue to respect Swedish neutrality. Sweden is the great German supply source for high grade ore without which her indispensable munitions and machine tool industries would be forced to work at a greatly reduced pace. Cut off from the Allies as a result of the struggle in Norway, Sweden now belongs almost wholly within the economic orbit of the Third Reich. Brought into the war as a result of a German invasion, the disorganization of Sweden’s economic life that would inevitably follow, particularly if she chose to resist, would certainly outlast the victory that Germany might achieve. But Hitler is no longer basing his war strategy on economic considerations. He is now moved by purely military considerations. Which means that he must win soon if he is to win at all. And if he is to win soon it must be by virtue of the application of overwhelming force regardless of the cost of lives, and the depletion of irreplaceable reserves.”
ITALY’S VULNERABILITIES. Dorothy Thompson joins all the other columnists who’ve been piling on Italy lately, writing about Italian military weaknesses in the New York Herald Tribune on Wednesday –
“[Italy] claims that she can mobilize 8,000,000 men, but she certainly would not equip them. Even her present army of a million is inadequately equipped. Indeed, that fact about the equipment of the army brought about the drastic changes in the army command which Mussolini instituted last fall. A considerable army is tied up in Albania, and another in Abyssinia, an Achilles’ heel for Italy....The industrial areas of Italy are concentrated in the north around Milan and Turin, near the French frontier, and are more exposed than the industrial areas of any other major power. This is certainly one reason why 99 per cent of the industrialists of Italy are vigorously against Italy going into the war.”
Miss Thompson adds that Mussolini’s regime does have some military value to Hitler -- “Italy’s nuisance power is great. She has a strong submarine fleet and can certainly make the Allies a great deal of trouble in the Mediterranean. In case the Germans make an offensive her army on the northwest border would at least divert some Allied troops, even if she didn’t use it. Her control of the Adriatic interferes with the British blockade and there are grave leakages through the Adriatic to Germany.” But much of that might be negated by one other fact about Italy -- “Her people...are tired and want peace.”
ARE DEMOCRATS THE “WAR PARTY”? Attempts by some Republican isolationists in Congress to portray the G.O.P. as the “peace party” and the Democrats as the “war party” haven’t had much effect, according to a Gallup poll published in Wednesday’s Washington Post. A new national survey shows that 33% of voters believed the Republicans are “more likely” to keep the U.S. out of war, while 35% feel that way about the Democrats. A total of 32% hold it makes “no difference” which party is in power in this respect. The only real change in these numbers since December is a marked decrease in the number of those in the “no difference” category -- but it’s certainly not surprising that people would become more partisan during an election year.
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