_ ril 19, 1940

THE ADVOCATE

Page Five

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if
4

i ateneteeeen

By HARRISON GEORGE

| HOW THE MANNERHEIM LINE WAS BROKEN

SHOUGH Shakespeare said, “Thrice armed is he who hath his quarrel just,” it is a profound truth never really under-
stood by military men. True, they value ‘morale,’ but calculate it as discipline plus wine, women and song. But that

g # uch I speak of is more than such morale.’ The Spartans had it at Thermopylae. Cromwell’s’‘Tronsides’ had it—those men
3 | ho made some conscience of what they did.” Washington’s army had it at Trenton, Lincolm’s at Cold Harbor and Mission

» dge. Only by understanding this, can anyone understand how the Red arm
rts’ by smashing the Mannerheim line.

By cold calculation these ‘ex-
‘tts’ had figured the Manner-
im line could not be broken by
‘s Red army or any army. Re-
ember these experts were not
)/ ceived as ordinary people were,
a): the smoke-screen of ‘Red
‘my weakness.’

they figured every physical
» ctor on both sides. But they
d not figure that the Red army,
* a Socialist army, could do
Sings that a capitalist army
mnot do. They still don’t know
at, and Scripps-Howard’s mili-
) ry writer, Thomas M. Johnson,
i March 15, headlined his article
ted Victory Points Way to
rack Western Front.’

Johnson, who first admitted it
as ‘a mystery’ how the Red
“my did it, adopted the popular
» but wrong, because inadequate
py explanation’ of most ‘experts’.
nat is, that Soviet artillery—to
-aote Johnson, “by sheer concus-
on of shelis and bombs drop-
‘sd onto the humped backs (of
mnerete forts) made these con-
\-ete turtles lurch in their holes
'. the ground, and sink back
Jrain out of plumb, so twisted
Piat their guns cannot continue
'; rake their carefully calculated
) elds of fire.”

' Through this ‘hole’ in the field
| fire, he says, the Red iffantry
)dvanced. And Mannerheim him-
)2lf spoke of how Soviet artillery
> created a miniature earthquake”
*hich ‘rocked’ the Finnish forts.
}Jl this is a high compliment for
soviet artillery, but it doesn’t
fell the whole story.

eee it must be remembered
; that in the very first days of

Phe war, the Red army crossed
= nd conquered the whole 800-mile
frontier, including the belt of
ight fortifications about eight
Boiiles deep, along the Karelian
order.

) From then on, was a long per
S)od of preparation, during which
aany scouting operations and
m mall engagements were magni-
ied by the daily press into ‘great
rattles” These—operations from
wake Ladoga north served to oc-
upy strategic positions and keep
Sinnish forces busy on the whole
rontier, while on the isthmus the
Red army pushed up close to the
nain Mannerheim line and began
, vast and intricate preparation
0 smash it.

The tremendous volume of sup-
dlies required to be brought up,
nainly
trom Leningrad to the Summa
ector, though another line sery-
‘d the front toward Taipale, is
neredible to the ordinary per-
.on. For example, the Finns said
that, over a period of weeks, Soy-
fet artillery fired 300,000 shells
2 day into their lines! Major Al-
en Johnson in New Masses esti-
f nates that eight million tons of
heavy shells were fired In the
Summa sector alone by the Red
army!

What a tremendous task of
transport, in weather at times 50
below zero all this must have
been, for remember that both
Shells and artillery to fire them,
and all the vast equipment of
Men and supplies, had not only
ts be brought up to, but spread
Hout along the front. Could this
haye been achieved with “poor
communications’?

TTH the Red artillery, the

first objective was to attain
a superior fire, which alone could
suppress Finnish artillery fire.
Wot only more guns, but bigger
guns, were brought up. Almost
incredibly, the Red army man-
aged to bring up and use along
jan extended front in a mobile
way, monster 12-inch guns ordin-
larily only fired from forts or
jbattleships. Such artillery out-
ranged the Finnish guns, firing
from 18 to 25 miles.

But, firing without exact aim is
ineffective. And here the Soviet
planes played a big part. During
the period of preparation, they
mot only had to drive Finnish
Planes away, and risk antiair-
craft fire, but systematically fly
up and down and back and forth
_ over the Mannerheim line, taking

aerial photos, that finally were

pieced together so that every pill-

box, fort and citadel was located

and mapped out in squares, num-
| bered and checked as on a check-
erboard.

Only then could the Red ar-
tillery be located and aimed so
as to rain devastating fire upon
the particular numbered square
where the Finnish machine-
gum pill-box, artillery fort or
heavier gun emplacement was
the target. But imagine how
all calculations had to be done
Over again when advance was
made. Imagine how perfect

must haye been the coordina-

over the one rail line.

tion of air, artillery and infan-
try.

As to the Soviet air force, after
Lindbergh’s lies and Pegler’s
sneers about ‘old wash-boilers
and egg-beaters’ have been fed
to newspaper readers for years,
after the Mannerheim line was
smashed, James Aldridge, New
York Times correspondent, final-
ly wrote from Stockholm on
March 26:

“Russian fighter planes were
light and extremely easy to ma-
neuver. Shey suiclassed any-
thing sent into the air against
them. The men who made the
Red air force what it is are as
important. Their ability to fly
is unquestionable.’ (It seems
that even the American planes
the US navy sent to Finland
were also ‘outclassed’.)

Coes to the actual smashing
of the Mannerheim line, this
Was done, Says Major George
Fielding Eliot (Life, March 18)
by the ‘infiltration attack,’ which
Was ‘developed at the end of the
world war. But not the same
kind of infiltration attack, and
especially, since infiltration de
pends so profoundly upon the in-
diyidual heroism of the soldier,
Red army infiltration could be
general, among all soldiers,
where only; a percentage of sol-
diers in capitalist armies can
possibly feel that same spirit.

Infiltration attack in the world
war was Carried out by smal] de-
tachments, crawling forward in
the dark or behind smoke screens
to ‘nibble away enemy positions.
The Red army developed infiltra-
tion on a ‘mass basis’ but not as
& mass attack in the old Hinden-
burg fashion. Extraordinary co-
ordination of artillery fire sil-
enced and overwhelmed the Hin-
mish gunners; at a given mo-
ment the Red artillery on one
smail sector only would cease
firing, while the infantry tanks
and sappers advanced, cut barb-
ed wire, blew up tank obstacles
and by encircling pili-boxes cut
their communication trenches
and captured the position. This
had to
times alone the whole front under
attack.

QO OVERCOME modern de-

fense developments embodied
in the Mannerheim line, infiltra-
tion had to be developed differ-
ently than that of the tail end
of the world war. And since, like
guerilla warfare, infiltration de-
pends upon the spirit of indi-
vidual soldiers, such methods
eould be effective on such a vast
defensive position as the Man-
nerheim line, only with a whole
army composed of men who are
inspired by what they are fight-
ing for.

The Red army had it. The
Finns didn’t That was shown
when the Red army reported
capturing 2,200 machine guns.
Sinee these are easily remov-
able, and soldiers never leave
them behind in retreat except
when literally running away in
terror, it would seem Finnish
machine gunners were talking
to their heels by thousands.

German Chief of Staff General
Erich yon Falkenhayn has given
the general military rule that —
“Acainst an enemy in good moral
and military condition, attempts
to break through are certainiy
not to be recommended.” The
Finnish troops, poor oppressed
peasants or workers whose jobs
are controlled not by unions but
by the police and which pay them
miserable wages for piling up
profits for Swedish, British and
American capitalists, cannot pos-
sibly have the fighting spirit of
the Socialist army of the USSR.

Major General Fuqua (News-
week, March 4) said “a trained
army of high morale can carry a
fighting line backward as well
as forward,” and then declared
that “as long as the Finnish army
is not destroyed or does not col-
lapse” it could hold a line. The
Finnish army was collapsing on
the Mannerheim line. The storm
of artillery shells poured over it
shattered and broke Finnish
‘morale’

“Tt is killing,” said one letter
from a Finnish officer published
in the daily press generally. The
Jetter told of the “unspeakable
terror which can be overcome
only by the exercise of one’s en-
tire psychic courage’’—‘It is kill-
ing to try to be an example to
one’s men, to joke, to suck calmly
on one’s pipe, feeling at the same
time that every nerve is 2S taut
as a violin string.”

Mannerheim quit when his
army caved in. Nor did he wait
fill it had been utterly destroyed.
And yet the Red army by the
use of socialism applied to miuli-
tary science accomplished the

be repeated countless”

‘miracle’ of smashing the Man-
nerheim line, besides all other op-
erations on other fronts with a
loss of only 48,645 men killed!
This compared to the 500,000 the
Allies reckon they would lose on
the Siegfried line, is a small cost
to insure safety of the Soviet Un-
ion from attack.

The old line generals, who al-
ways reckon the importance of a
battle by how many men they
have killed, are dumbfounded.

VEN technically, capitalist

armies cannot attain the per-
fection of a socialist army. Mark
the antagonism of the US navy
to being made subordinate to the
War department. Mark the jeal-
ousies and hatred between the
different services. The air force
Says the plane is better than the
battleship, the admirals stiffly
declare the opposite. Mark, too,
as a perusal of history will show,
the various jealousies between
individuals.

On the other hand, the land of
socialism has produced what that
pioneer of socialism and friend
of Karl Marx, Frederick Engels,
ealled “a change in the human
material of war,’ the kind of a
Soldier the new social system
needs, to defend itself against
the decadent deviltry of expiring
capitalism.

y astounded the world’s greatest military ‘ex-

“Nothing,” wrote Engels, “is
+ more dependent on economic
- pre-conditions than the army
and navy ... it is not generals
| of genius who have revolution-
' ized war, but the inventions of
better weapons and changes in
the human material, the sol-

+ diers.”

The Red armyman who is in-
fused by class consciousness and
internationalism is the “new type
sof combatant” that took the
‘Mannerheim line and startled the
military experts of the whole
world. The ‘tactics’ (for lack of
fa better word) of individual and
Mass co-ordination, blending the
saction on the front with the ‘deep
attack,’ is the technique of a
socialist army.

Just as the American frontiers-
Man, who fought with Andrew
Jackson at New Orleans, or with
Washington, was the “new type
of human material” created by
the libertarian development of
early capitalist democracy, who
by the technique of the ‘skirm-
ish’ broke the hitherto ‘unbreak-
gble’ formation of feudal mon-
archism known as the ‘military
Square’ as used by the British
army, so the Red armyman is
fhe human material created by
the new social system of social-
ism, that can conquer any fort-
ress or ‘line’ capitalism may
erect. The proof lies yonder in
the shattered wreck of the Man-
nerheim line!

‘BEHIND THE SCENES
IN ITALY

By L. ZACCI

ROME.

ye ruling circles of Italy do not desire to speak loudly about

the sore spots in the economy and in the whole life of the
country. This ulcer is usually covered with a thick wrapping
of official optimism. But there are cases when this protective
covering fails to conceal the truth entirely.

Italy has not yet entered the
war, but everything that charac-
terizes war time conditions exists
in the country. A general rise
in prices, unprecedented even for
Italy, is assuming disastrous
forms. Even the official press
admits that, for example, the
price of clothing has increased
400 percent compared with 1936.

And at the same time one must
remember how things were in
1936. That was after the Abys-
sinian war. Goods were on sale
in the shops, but the great ma-
jority of the population could not
even dream of buying the most
necessary things.

Wevertheless, as the newspa-
per La Stampa writes, the pres-
ent increase in prices surpasses
the 1936 record. It is certain that
this paper is not exaggerating,
but on the contrary, is greatly
minimizing the real extent of the
poverty of the Italian consumers.

Abee Blackshirts naturally are
making a great shout about
their firm determination to com-
bat this evil. But one cannot say
that their program is marked by
originality. Since fascist Italy
officially placed the problem of
high prices on the agenda, it has
not been able to think of any
other remedy than the setting up
of commissions to observe price
movements. These commissions
serve the purpose of providing
the occasion desired by the gov-
erning regime, for indulging in
loud self-praises. The result of
their work, however, has always
remained nil.

The first commissions of this
kind were formed by the Fascist
party but their ‘fructifying’ work
soon proved disagreeable. The
observation of price movements
was handed over to the so-called
provincial councils of the cor-
porative economy. The price
problem has now become 60
pressing that the ruling circles
find themselves compelled to
stage fresh maneuvers to pacify
the people. For this purpose an-
other commission was set up, to
which several ministers were
elected.

The Gazeta del Popolo pub-
lished the results of the last stage
of the work of the price commis-
sion with the local councils of the
corporative economy. It appears
that the commission organized
special groups, which in Turin in
the last four and one-half months
carried out 23,096 ‘operations’ in
the fight against high prices.
These groups included agents of
the secret police, carabineers and
members of the Fascist militia
One might regard all this as
comical. The Italian paper, how-
ever, writes quite seriously about
it and evidently assumes that the
expeditions of the secret police
and cearabimeers would be re-
garded by the populaton as proof
of the capacity of the present

regime to lead the country out of
the cul de sac.

W 19386 a decree was issued for-
bidding any increase in rents.
Exceptions were allowed only in
Such cases where the amount in
question was necessary for reno-
vating or repairing the building.
The landlords did everything in
order to take advantage of this
provision in every way. Wot in-
frequently fictitious ‘renovations’
were undertaken to enable in-
creasing the rent. This decree
expires this year and one can cite
as an example that the house
property owners association in
Waples has already announced
in the press its intention to
raise rents.

Some papers admit that one of
the causes of the high prices lies
in the overburdening of the home
market as a result of the policy
of dumping abroad. Italy sells
its goods on the foreign market
at below cost price in order
thereby to capture export mar-
kets. The exporters, however,
are compensated for the differ-
ence in price compared with
prices on the Italian market, and
the result is a complete disorgan-
ization of the market.

Of course this is not the only
cause of high prices. An import-
ant factor is also the so-called
autarchy policy, whereby, instead
of importing goods, native sub-
stitute goods which are much
dearer and incomparably inferior
are produced. This policy is im-
mediately connected with Italy’s
War preparations. Of no less im-
portance is the direct military
expenditure which far exceeds
the capacity of this relatively
€conomically weak country.

RECISELY at the present time

a large-scale campaign is be-
ing carried on in Italy for the
further promotion of exports, or
in other words, dumping. The
ruling circles attach great hopes
to the present situation in Hur-
ope, and are pleased at the pros-
pect of being able to capture the
-Markets of belligerent powers. It
is very doubtful, however, whe-
ther anything positive will come
Of this. One thing is certain,
however, the new intensification
of the dumping policy will not
fail to have an effect on Italian
consumers; and no ‘operations’ of
the secret police and the cara-
bineers will be able to alter the
inevitable development of things
and conditions.

Of course the blackshirts have
other means apart from dema-
fo0gy to overcome the difficulties.
The secret police are engaged not
only in pretending to fight high
prices, but also in savagely per-
secuting those who attempt to
Make any protest. Nevertheless,
the situation in the country is
becoming increasingly strained.
The mass discontent is assuming
such proportions that in the last
resort terror as well as demagosy
wall prove of no avail.

While Hitler’s blitzkrieg stroke in Denmark

Vancouver and Norway was absorbing world attention
Blitzkrieg : we had a Hitlerite maneuver put over in our

bailliwick. For over two years, Murrin of
ithe BC Collectric has stalled the city council with a promising mirage
to prevent it from going through with a threatened appeal to the pro-
vincial railway board for an improved streetcar service. ,

In fact, the civic utilities committee had, at the beginning of
Jan. 1938, sent a demand to G. S. Pearson, then provincial minister
of railways, as a first move to compel the BC Collectrie to scrap some
of its perambulating junk and use streetcars for the transportation of
the people of Vancouyer.

The BC Gollectrie management was undoubtedly alarmed. Its
equipment had been pronounced ‘obsolete’ by the expert, Alien J.
Smith, who investigated it in 1935 on behalf of the city and it was,
no doubt, afraid the dividend payments that go so consistently to
shareholders, might have to be spent on mew streetcars. So it got
busy immediately—with promises.

Murrin had an interview with the civic utilities committee, Alder-
Men Crone and Wilson. The committee reported back to the city
council that Murrin had informed it that “the BC Electric would ex-
pend several hundred thousand dollars in the next two years, in the
purchase of the latest type of streetcars. ... The company had ear-
marked $125,000 for new trams and the renovation of the existing
cars this year and has tentatively arranged for $500,000 worth of new
cars in 1939.”

A further promise was reported made, that ‘the company will take
up the question of extending the Victoria road service beyond the
present terminus at Fifty-fourth, probably by a busline along Victoria
road to Marine drive and eastward to serve the industrial area there.’

This latter promise, at least, was kept. It ‘took up the question.’
That was all it undertook to do, And you will note the ‘tentatively,’
about buying the half-a-million dollars worth of new streetcars. How-
ever, it was enough to satisfy the smart people at the city hall. And
Ald. Crone withdrew the letter to the provincial minister of railways
demanding extension of services, more streetcars and elimination of

over-crowding,
Jubilee hater it made a bluff at spending the $500,-
Z 000. It added a condition to its promise.
Celebration Soon. t would go ahead if the city would agree
to installation of one-man cars on the
Grandview-Fourth avenue line. The people of Vancouver protested as
one man, except, probably, a few BG Collectrie shareholders.

In spite of that, we-are now confronted with the Hitlerite maneuver
of a ‘fait accompli.” It has taken the ‘initiative’ and asked the minister
of railways to grant it permission to do what has been expressedly
denied it by the people most concerned—the citizens of Vancouver—
operate one-man juggernaut wagons on the Grandview-Fourth avenue
line. :

It is through courtesy only, that we can call the tumbrils that shake
our innards about when we travel on that line, by the name of street-
ears. They are museum pieces. They will soon be celebrating their
jubilee, for they were built in Westminster back in the nineteenth
century-

Undoubtedly, we need new cars on the Grandview-Hourth avenue
line—and on all other lines, too, but not one-man cars. For two reasons
it is necessary to keep one-man cars off the streets. Hirst, in the in-
terest of public safety. They are dangerous. Why is it that accidents
involving one-man cars, except when they are glaring like the one
which occurred on Oak street a few months ago, are seldom reported
in the press? Because it would be bad for one-man car propaganda.

The other reason is, that we are interested in keeping down the
length of the breadline. Every one-man car will put two-and-a-half
men out of a job . If anybody is to go on relief we prefer that it should
be the BCG Collectric shareholders like Sir Herbert Holt, Messrs. J. H.
Gundy, Harvey MacMillan, Austin Taylor or even W. G. Murrin,

From the squawking of people like Murrin,
induced by visions of receiving profits, it is
good to hear of streetcar transportation
that is organized for genuine service, where
there is no profit motive.

The Dean of Canterbury, besides being a preacher, is a competent
mechanical engineer with a thorough, practical and theoretical train-
ing .In his new book, The Socialist Sixth of the World, a title which an
English reviewer changes to The Civilized Sixth of the World, he
writes about the Moscow streetcars—not one-man cars, by the way.

For the benefit of Murrin and the editor of the Buzzard, this is
what the Dean writes, after describing the underground Metro: “Still
better, as a witness to Russia’s new efficiency, are the fast streetcars
which carry the traffic on the outer and circular routes, leaving the
motor and trolley busses to deal with the central area.

“These tramcars are lovely vehicles, streamlined, blue-painted, well
upholstered, well lit, internally heated and fitted with automatic
doors . Their horsepower of 500 compares with the English 200 for two-
decker cars, and provides magnificent acceleration. ‘Regenerative
braking returns energy to the power supply; no power is lost when
a car is brought to a standstill.

“Moscow's electric cars reveal entire mastery of modern technical
possibilities and inventiveness.”

The Moscow streetcars are designed solely for service but even
if the BC Collectric’s cars had al] the good points of the Moscow cars
there would still be one essential difference—the principal part of
the BC Collectric car would still remain—the fare-box, the only part
which has been improved since Bowser made the company put doors
on to keep the over-crowded passengers from falling out.

Streetcars
In Moscow.

From the little seaport town of Blyth on
the Northumberland coast of England,
comes the following story. It was printed
in the Sunday Chronicle of March 17.
“The same tide which washed-up three dead German airmen on the
northern coast, washed-up an unknown. British seaman. An official
funeral was given the Germans, who were buried with full military
honors. . . . They were carried through the streets on a gun-carriage
and with an RAF escort, who saluted at the graveside. The British
sailor, who was a victim of enemy action, was placed in a wooden
coffin of the cheapest make, taken to the mortuary by night and
buried in a pauper’s grave ... by the Public Assistance committee.”

The story concludes by stating: “There was nothing on the British
Sailor to tell who he was, but his face spoke of his fortitude and
courage.” To be a British sailor or a French sailor or a neutral sailor
in these days, without these virtues, would be impossible. The forti-
tude is needed to withstand the onslaught of the near-fascist ship-
owners and their political allies, on the seamen’s standard of living and
the courage to fight off, while unarmed, the bombs and machine-gun
bullets of the Nazi vultures. The vulture is the only bird to whom
these ‘honorably buried’ Nazi murderers can be compared.

Even while alive these heroic British seamen work unhonored. Men
rescued from torpedoed ships are turned over to the cold mercy of
charity. INeither the government, the local authorities nor the Grad-
grind shipowners will put up a penny to help them. The shipowners
actually stop their pay on the day their ship is sunk.

Fortitude and courage! Yes, the sailor has these qualities He
needs them!

Two Funerals
In England.

* ¥ * *

Don’t forget our duty to the press drive. We have to get $305.02
to keep our end up. One donation this week was very pleasing. From
four unemployed ex-servicemen, 50 cents. That’s the spirit

PUBLIC MEETING

ORANGE HALL

Gore Ave. at Hastings

SUNDAY, APRIL 21, at 8 P.M.
De Speaker: Wm. Stewart
: Subject: TRADE UNIONS AND DEMOCRACY

Chairman: W. Bennett Silver Collection

Ni oe eee a RN ne eel,