THE WAR 11 WEEK BY WEEK

Amilby Captain]
THE WAR 11 WEEK BY WEEK
FACING Amilby Captain] FACTS Bernard Acworth
AT the time of writing, the
latest possible, the general position on all the crucial fronts in the West, in Italy in Poland, Latvia and Hungary, and in the Philippines, is ostensibly much as it was a week ago. That is to say so far as position is concerned. Whether the pressure of overwhelming force will result in the sudden cracking of enemy resistance, as foretold, is a matter for " waiting and seeing." The positional warfare on the northern sectors of the Western Front is at present unpleasantly reminiscent of the Somirte battlefield of the last war. What, I think, will most of Germanwsureil;itse m6aterthiae 1 in crucial in strength of the Luftwaffe. These Peeted reserves, and the reappearance
facts, stressed by all war correspondents, do not seem to square with the immense claims made for the hundreds of thousands of tons of explosives dropped on cities and aimed at eornmunications. In this connection it is reported that the V2 attacks have been greatly reduced by Allied " train-busting " bombing. But if these V2 weapons can be fired from anywhere, as is said, it would be thought that the firing-points would be close to the factories where they are made.
It is reported that General Montgomery has in reserve a large British and Canadian force not yet committed to action; and that this force may hold the key for breaking the German resistance. This key force, if it is in reality in reserve, must be largely dependent upon an improvement in the weather. At present Holland must be a bog where it is not a lake or a flooded water-way. How affairs at Antwerp are progressing we have had no word, beyond the fact that it is under V2 fire. The clearance of the Scheldt must be a stupendous naval undertakine under recent weather conditions. Furthermore, Admiral Doenitz, we may be sure, intends that the passage to Antwerp shall be as hazardous as U-boats, E-boats and mines can make it. I mention the foregoing facts because it is best to face facts at the beginning of a grim winter campaign. It may be that the Allies are up against a hard and brittle crust which conceals a hollow interior. If so it proves, no harm will have been done in assuming the contrary. The relief will be all the greater when the crust cracks.