t oad tig bs 4 The War The RAE’S Brilliant Exploit The startling news of the smashing by the RAF of two great German dams, the Eder and the Mohne, highlighted events on the war fronts this week. ~ Most significant feature of this event, perhaps, is the fact. that the raid required an extremely high degree of technical perfec- tion and timing, indicating again that the British Army and RAF is fast rounding into shape as one of the most potent fighting forces on the Allied side. For slter in- genuity, planning and imagination it has eclipsed anything the Nazis may have attempted when their armies were making military his- tory. The effect of the dam-busting exploit almost staggers the imag- ination. Imagine a flood of water fifty feet or more high rushing down from the hills onto the towns below. Thousands of people were swept to their death. Important bridges vanished. Power houses, factories, railway stations, coal yards and the myriad of installa- tions a modern: nation establishes on the shores. of important rivers— all were swept away by the rag- ing flood. Ships must haye been carried far onto the shore. Canals overflowed. The whole damage may not be revealed until after the war. But there are 40 or more big dams left in Germany. What has been done once will be done again. In any case the enemy will have to set aside anti-aircraft guns and fizhter planes to protect the dams that will show at the fighting fronts. The Nazis are frantically trying to repair the damage But they are unable to conceal the fact that the floods created havoc in the industrial Rubr and Weser valleys, havoc which will undoubt- edly reflect in Germany's prepara- tions to meet the threat of the European invasion. “You stay out—We are planning Italy's defense Ine.” Where Will The Invasion Strike? As the Churchill-Roosevelt conferences continued and broad- ened to include discussions with Prime Minister Mackenzie King and Defense Minister Ralston, the United Nations were rife with speculation as to the pur- pose and outcome of the talks and the next field of Allied oper- ations against Germany, Churchill’s speech to the United States Gongress again affirmed Anglo-American intentions of ‘“re- moving some of the load from the shoulders of the Red Army in 1943.” This statement has been generally interpreted as indicating the Allies have decided on a sec- ond front in Europe this year. The British leader again reiterated the position taken by himself and Roosevelt at Casablanca of “set- fling with Hitler first’ before throwing Britain’s weight against Japan in the Pacific, a realistic position that will be generally ap- proved. The talks now going on with Canada’s defense minister, Colonel 3d. lL. Ralston, would also indicate that whatever plans are under way will include Canada’s overseas army under General McNaughton. Some observers see a danger, however, in a too ready acceptance of the Mediterranean as the main avenue of invasion now that the Tunisian battle is over. There is too much talk of the “soft underbelly” of Hurope, too preva- lent an opinion that the loss to Hitler of Italy, say, or the Bal- kans, would be a major blow to the Nazi leader. But the “soft underbelly” is soft only as far in- Jand as the mountain ranges, from the Pyrenees to the Balkans. “Any invasion from the south will have to contend with these mountains, and even the conquest of Italy might be looked on by Hitler as “good riddance,” particularly from the viewpoint of food supplies. The same holds good for Greece. The victory in Tunisia has not altered the fact that invasion of Europe from Britain is still the logical route, with the Mediterr- gnean offering principally an avenue for diversionary attacks. Hitler’s Last Gamble On the Eastern Front the Red Army and the Wehrmacht continue to spar for openings. The Germans have tried for weak spots at Novorrosisk, near Lysichansk, south of Novgorod, and near Leningrad. Everywhere they have been thrown back with heavy losses. But the efforts continue. Every- thing can be expected: the use of poison gas; massed formations of heavy “Tiger” tanks; massed formations of heavy artillery; con- centrations of literally thousands of planes on extremely narrow sectors of the front. There is mo reason to expect that these tactics will win decisive results. enemy to break through in one They may enable the point. But the gain will neither be as serigus nor as great as last year. For the enemy must face the fact that this time the Red Army is preparing an all-out blow, and plans to deal it first. Battle Im The Aleutians Victory by American forces which landed on Attu Island in the Aleutians seemed certain this week, and when this phase of the North Pacific battle is decided, the Japanese on Kiska will have been partly outflanked. The next drive may well be against the big Japanese naval and air base at Paramushiro Island, lying off the tip of Soviet Kamchatka. Tf this were done successfully Japan's whole fiank would be im- mediately endangered. The fighting going on at Attu is taking place under the most difficult conditions. Unusual cli- matic conditions resulting from the meeting of the Japanese cur- rent with the cold waters of the Bering Sea create almost continual and heavy fogs. Air fighting is difficult and often impossible for days at a time. Even land fight- ing is often halted, and this has already been the case on Attu. The importance of capture of this Aleutian outpost lies in the fact that it can be used as a base from which attacks on Tokyo could be made. Poland Lieutenants Of Goebbels The anti-Soviet position of the Polish government-in-exile, with its continued demands for nothing less than a full restora- tion of “Eastern Poland” plus some extra Soviet territory, was in its proper perscpective by Sovi- et Premier Joseph Stalin’s letter to New York Times’ Moscow Cor- respondent Ralph Parker, which reaffirmed the Soviet's Union's de- sire for a “free and independent Poland” as already expressed in the treaty” between the two coun- tries signed in December, 1941. It was the Polish government's violation of this treaty as the agreement signed in July, i941, that, after accumulation of other events including espionage under the guise of relief work, ended in the recent rupture of relations. The latter pact expressed the consent of the USSR for the formation on its territory of a Polish Army to operate with the Red Army against the Nazis. Soviet authorities sup- plied Polish units with equipment and funds amounting to several million rubles. But this Polish unit was never dispatched to the front and was finally withdrawn to the Middle East. During the period of its forma- tion, it is now revealed, Polish commander Anders openly ex- pressed the hope that the USSR would be defeated leaving the Pol- ish Army the major military force remaining on Soviet territory. This revelation was made by the for- mer chief of staff of the Polish fifth division, Lt. Col. Berling, in a recent issue of Free Poland pub- lished by the Union of Polish Pa- triots in Moscow. As for territorial claims, the fact is that there were two large minor- ities, apart from the Jews, in Po- Tand. These were the Byelo-Rus- -sians and the Ukrainians — about 12,000,000 people together. They were forced under the rule of mod- ern Poland thrugh a bitter and unprovoked war against the USSR in the summer of 1920. Byelo-Rus- sia and the Ukraine are not part of Poland but full-fledged inde pendent nations, with a highly de- veloped national culture and na- tional industry. This was recog- nized years ago by the US and Bri- tain. It was Lord Curzon who pro- posed a workable frontier between Poland and the USSR in 1919, a frontier which is substantially the Same to which the Red Army moved in September, 1939. Faced with these facts, the Pol- ish reactionaries have now gone back 200 years to point out “that used to be our territory, we want it now.” On that basis, however, Swe- den should claim part of Russia, Italy should claim most of Bri- tain by right of the early Ro- man conquest, Turkey should de- mand Libya, and France ought to lay claim to the province of Quebec since it was first settled by French fur traders. The meaning of the Polish re- actionaries’ position seems to be this: Hitler will be defeated only by fighting him, and anybody that gives aid to Hitler is betraying the fight. Post-war issues will be set- tled only by those who have done the fighting, and absentee rulers cannot simply expect to come back and take over where they left off —especially the rulers of Poland who brought their own nation to disaster. —s The Tanll The history of we: of weapons. In gene into two main categi those of defense or Pri tween the two there har tinual struggle for asc one period armor hi leading role. Then th has swung over to whi] developed as protect armor have become fF In the light of rect experiences at Staling Tunisia, many oODbDSEr the pendulum is swin this time away from ar resented by the tank, new protective weapor sented by anti-tank ¢ etc. One of the most v tributions to this dij given by Tom Wintrin lish military writer, book, “The Story of W Tactics.” In this book he givi plete, although brief the struggle between projectile, from Troy tc tracing the development through six main perio division running appre, follows: First Unarmored Pe historic to the Battle + 479’ BG: First Armored Peric 479 BC to the Battle of in 378 AD, during whic. armored foot soldier m: in warfare. Second Unarmored From 378 AD to CE’ victory at Pavia in 77 | iron clothing came hb form of heavily armo: cavalry. — . Second Armored Peri’ Pavia to the Battle of | General Jacques | African campaign Libyan desert to | tania, is shown | recent battle for « a leading part.