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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1943-12-09, Page 6THE WAR . WEEK -*„ Commentary on Current Events The Direct And Indirect Effects Of The .Air Assault On Germany The directeffects of:tltt-goat air assault in the desire:Alon of German factory capacity, transport and comrnunicatlons can be read upon the reconnaissance photo- graphs; the indirect efforts ou gar- loan finence, resources, commune. cations, productive efficiency and the whole fabric of the German military -social mechanism can be said with certainty to be very great. But the total effect on Ger- many's ability to continue the struggle is not clear, at least, not to the layman. Results On Battle Fronts Many people feel that, whatever the terrors of the bombings for. those who must withstand them, tho results have yet to appear clearly on the battle fronts, This is not quite true. Germany's want of air power in Russia and in Italy is quite obvious and can be explained only on tlu' ground that she has been deprived of the capa- city to produce the planes that she need, In the more specific case of the air assaults on Rostock and Luebeek in the spring of 1942, the British hall learned that the Ger- mans lad accumulated great stocks of supplies in those ports for an offensive against Russia in the north; after the bombers had tin- ishee with Rostock and Lueheck the offensive had to be abandoned. But such exact demonstrations of cense and effect are rare. It is possible to photograph a st'reelced factory; it ie not possible to photograph the non-existent planes or tanks or grins which the factory would have produced if it had remained in operation. The front line, are bitterly aware of what the Germans can do with .the material that reaches then, but arca less conscious of what the Ger- mans might have done had they had everything of whirls the R.A.F. and the 8th Air Force have de- prived them. Yet the last is, of cenrso, the true treasure of what the heavy bombers have done and not until after the war will it be Possible to make even a good guess at it. Pattern Bombing It may be far more desirable to bctnb one roller bearing plant than a dozen steel mills, simply because it is a long way, industrially, with stock piles in between, from a steel Mill to a finished engine mounted in a fighter plane, but only a short way from one roller bearing plant to a dozen aircraft truck and tank factories which must have bearings at once. For similar reasons it is not worth while to bomb coal or lignite mines, or streches of ordinary rail- road, but decidedly worth while to strike at synthetic oil or rubber plants, or a locomotive works. The pattern is as scientific as it can be made. It represents calculated risks for calculated results. There Is nothing indiscriminate about it. Men are not being sent on guess - 'work missions. Theirs is the most precise work fighting men are do, Ing in this war. Nzzis Not Crushed Yet By every outward test the Ger- man war potential has been seriously reduced, The Germans have lost the war at sea; they have given up an empire in Russia; they are so straitened that they have been able to make no more than token reprisals against Bri- tain for the terrible air attacks which have shaken them so pro- foundly. But it is evident that a modern industrial organism is a much tougher structure than any one had supposed. Nowhere have the German armies been found without guns or ammunition, as were the Czarist armies at times in the last war. Nowhere have the German air defenses been really crushed. Nowhere has there been a total loss of mobility or a total collapse of civilian services. Since the effects o1 war are cumulative, these things may begin to appear. They have not appeared yet. Allied Plan of 1918 In 1918 the Allied conunauders HEADS DIRECTORATE Col. 11. It. Alley, 0,11,11,, of Toronto, who has been appointed chief of the recently formed Directorate of the Veterans Gutted of Canada. were planutng, up to the very end, a massivecampaign for 1919, bee 'loving that nothtug less would suffice to break tate military streugth they knew the euemy still possessed. Happily, the campaign was unuecessal',v, but the cont madders were right iu their action, and we may well emulate them today, OTTAWA REPORTS That the Soy Bean la Likely to Have a Considerable Effect on Canadian Agriculture. Scientists delving into the pos- sibilities of the soy bean have not yet explored all its uses, Indus- try has only begun to make use of this remarkable plant The mature seeds of the soy bean have a very high oil and protein content and the oil may be used wholly or in partial replacement of other -Els in vegetable, short- ening, margarine oil, paints, soap and linoleum. It is valuable as a concentrated protein ,feed for live tack, Where human nutri- tion is concerned, diet deficiency disease, pellagra and rickets are unknown in those areas of the 1"ar East v_ ere soy beans have been used in hamar diet. Two and one half pounds of soy bean flour has been found to contain the nutritive eqt _,alert of 64 eggs or three quarts of milk and it has more of the essential min- eral vitamins, enzymes and phos- phates than are found in any other field crop. * e In the contemplation of the multiplicity of uses one lnnne- eiate use should not be over- lookeu by farmers — the effec- tiveness of the soy bean in con- trolling couch grass, By con- tinually cropping infested land with soy beans the weed can be completely smothered in record time. Other crops are known to help control couch grass but it has been proved that soy beans give by far the best results. .An ex- periment recently concluded at the Central Experimental Farm in Ottawa disclosed some inter- esting facts. Four crops—soy beans, corn, buckwheat and millet —were grown continuously for four years. In preparation for all of these crops tee ground was fall ploughed. Both soy beans and corn were cultivated five tines and hoed twi:e during each growing season. Before seeding the buckwheat and millet the land was worked to keep down the growth of couch grass and give these smother crops a good start. * u q At the end of the first year only 6 per cent. of couch grass remained in the soy bean plot, there was 20 par cent, left in the corn and 50 per cent, it. the plots seeded to buckwheat and millet. By end of the second year couch grass had completely disappeared in the soy bean field, 10 per cent, remaind in the buck- wheat field and 6 per cent. in the corn and millet. There still persisted 1 per cent. of couch grass in the m.11et field at the end of the third year's continu- ous cropping b t this remnant gave up at the end of the fourth year. Corn and buckwheat had done a thorough job in their areas and soy bean 1. ok only two years to achieve the same purpose, Clothing Gift British clothing manufacturers are preparing to ship $400,000 worth of dresses and coats to Russia for women and children in areas freed from the German grip by the Red Army, it was an- nounced. They will 're a gift of the trade. A basic principle in the train- ing of youths of the Royal Ca- nadian Array cadets is to teach the value of good citizenship. Wee ees EACH "Eveready" Flashlight Battery must pass the same rigid tests for quality as in pre-war years. Remember, too, the date.line on the jacket is your guarantee of freshness. • When you need to re -load your flash. light, choose the batteries which have been preferred by Canadians for more than a quarter century — "Eveready" Batteries. "They Last Longer" tit Canadian National Carbon Company Limited Halifax Montreal TORONTO Winnipeg Vancouver City Of Bizerte Exists No More North African City Deserted Except For Allied Soldiers Bizerte doesn't exist any more except by name. It is a junk heap. It was last May that Bizerte paid the final price for harboring Hitler's North African headquar• tars, but in the five months since the Allied Air Force finished pounding it to stop the Nazi sol- diers from fleeing through it, Bi zerte has never come b' ck... Soldiers who have seen other campaigns and other razed cities say it never will. Rebuilding looks impossible to- day. What was once a city of thou- sands now is d setted except for soldiers. There are no women, no civilians, no business. Empty buildings stare into the debris -littered streets, tln'ot.t't eyes which are shrapnel holes. Houses are slashed down the mid- dle, baring the detailed interiors of bedrooms, sitting rooms, Imre, eries for all the world like a child's cardboard doll house with the outer wall removed. For blocks and blocks, not one single house can be seen. The same is true of business districts. Bi- zerte literally was bombed out of existence. But now signs of life are pro• videcl by the Army. Bizerte is now a military reservation in front of a few houses which remain semi - liaised and which are encircled by barbed wire. The harbor, where once a three ing shipping business operated, be. fore the Germans sought to use it for an escape corridor, still shows some life, but not much. Ringed by palm trees, many of whose tops have been sheared off by shrapnel, it is marked by the smokestacks of sunken ships—and only a small per cent of those which lie at the bottom show in themasses of steel above the Meeliterlean waters, A few buildings near the water's edge are in use by the Army. Even they have been boarded up in spots where the bombing ripped big !toles. New Nazi Plane Carries 130 Men The Madrid newspaper Infor- ntaeiones published last week a series of photographs described as the first pictures released abroad of the new German M. sserschmitt 323 transport plane, said to be capable of carrying 130 fully equipped men. The photographs showed a six - engined Craft with multiple land- ing gear and doors in the nose sintilar'to those of landing barges. "Ferdinand's" Weak Points Revealed Some detailet information about the new German self-pro- pelled gun known as "Ferdinand" has just conte ou. of Russia, says Newsweek. The gun itself is the familiar 88 -mat cannon, but the tank -like vehicle is unusual. Its ar,nor runs from about 8 inches in front to 3 in the rear. It can. ries a crew of six, including a radio operator, and is steered by periscope. Two air-cooled 300- h.p. motors furnish the power to drive it about 12 miles an hour on a highway, less in sough coun- try. It must stop to fire, its host effective range being about 1,500 pards. The Ressians have found that this slowness, plus the poor visibility for the crew, makes it vulnerable to attack even by in- fantrymen using grenades or Moto toff cocktails. tails, REG'LAR FELLERS—Lir Angel HEAR: i.4 A / WHAT'S 001140 ON 114 HERE -A BATTLE? MY BEST CHAIR' USING IT FOR A TRENCH.' HOW DARE YOU? 1 DECLARE, PUDDINHEAD; YOU DON'T SEEM TO HAVE ANY SENSE! YOU NEVER CATCH PINHEAD MISUSINfa MY FURNITURE THAT WAYS By GENE BYRNES r,.