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HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1942-11-19, Page 3THE ONCE-MVMIGI-I'TY LUFTWAFFE These fuselages are part of more than 100 Axis bombers put out of commission by Allied air attacks and later captured by advancing Allied forces in Egypt. Land troops have lined up the fuselages at an air field in EI Daba, Egypt, which until a few days ago was miles behind the British lines. VSICE OF 'I H F. PRESS WORLD NEEDS THE EMPIRE "Some think the time is appro- priate to write the obituary of the British Empire as it has been constituted. Let then not forget that this Empire is the greatest agency far good ever fashioned by man—that whatever happens to it in years to cone the world is infinitely better today because of its existence." —Ottawa Journal —0— TREATED LIKE AN ENEMY Italy's food and resources are being sent to Germany. The Ital- ian people will begin to wonder whether Mussolini put them into this war for, ar against, Germany. Certainly they don't get any bet- ter treatment than that Germany gives her enemies. —Chatham News GIRL WARNED Girls, if you marry a man in khaki, better make up your mind he'll be yours for the duration, for .. unless he's willing, you can't die vorce him. That's a warning in the Great Falls Tribune and it • might be heeded here as well as in Montana. —Lethbridge Herald —o— LONG; LONG AGO Do you remember those days, long ago, when stores advertised "leaders," and you might have . read something like this: Two pounds of sugar and a pound of coffee with every purchase of a new tire! —Stratford Beacon -Herald —o— STRANGEST CASUALTY , The strangest war casualty to • date: In Atlanta, the zoo's big baboon, Tommy, beloved by thous- ands of school children, went into a decline for lack of bananas. —Stratford Beacon -Herald —0— A MARRED BIBLE A new Nazi -edited edition of the Bible to be put on sale In Germany will contain a picture of Adolf Hitler. 'Nuff said. —Sault Ste. Marie Star —o— SIZING UP MAN No mere man is as good as she thinks he is before marriage nor so bad as she thinks he is after- ward. —Brandon Sun —o— JAPA.dATION "Daps Violate White Flag to Slay 28 U. S. Marines." That wasn't violation. It was Japana- tion. —Windsor Star —0— SOLDIERS KNOW BEANS Don't ever try to tell a Cana- dian soldier that he doesn't know beans. —Kitchener Record Swedes Using Wood To Run Automobiles It's a wood pile and not a filling station that a Swedish motorist steers for nowdays in Sweden, ac- cording to a Swedish official now In Montreal. Wood has replaced gasoline as automobile fuel. Cars have been converted to run on a form of gas instead of gasoline, and nearly every machine in Swedish cities has this device. Cars will run about two hours without a refill. Then, according to the Swedish visitor, the motor- ist will pall up at a spot where a lot of wood is bagged up. For about 10 cents he will buy a bag of wood, dump it into his little gas Converter, step on the starter, and he is away again. A curious fea- ture of this gas process is that the poorest fuel paradoxically is ac- tually the best, and goodwood is bad, as far as the car is concerned. Emotion affects the cyo fans tions of 80 per cent or the people, recent tests ilave shown; THE WAR . WEEK — Commentary on Current Events _Allied -Plan -7or Victory Seen hi Offensive Action In Africa Axis forces in the western des- ert, after twelve days and nights of ceaseless attacks by our land and air forces, now are in full retreat. Their disordered columns are being relentlessly attacked by our land forces and by the R. A. F. day and night. United Nation forces continued to pour into French North Africa after 70 transports had unloaded 140,000 ground troops, Marines and Rangers at various points along a 1,000 -mile length of the Moroc- can -Algerian coastline in the great- est naval landing undertaking of the war. Now at last after the long months of uncertainty and doubt we know what the Allied master plan for victory is to be. With American troops landing along the north and northwestern coasts of French Africa, the die is cast—we are going to lay siege to Hitler's fortress of Europe from all sides and draw in those siege lines where they are most remote from the enemy's citadel. The whole picture fits together now—the reason for Gen. Bernard L. Montgomery's powerful attack on General Field Marshal Erwin Rommel at • this time, the reason for the great soppy and repair bas- es in the Middle East, the reason far fleet and shipping concentra- tions at the western end of the Mediterranean, the reason for our diplomatic dallyings with Vichy, the reason for the recent bombings of Northern Italian ports, even the reason for the heavy American troop concentrations in Great Bri- tain, and the reason for the meth- odic development of a great chain of air bases across Central Africa. Turning Point in War We believe that history will say that on Nov. 7 the blow was struck that marked the turning point in this war and the beginning of the great offensive against the Axis Powers. This is not too high a valuation to place on the opera- tions which an American expedi- tionary army, supported by British naval and air forces, has launched in North Africa. Hazardous as these operations may be, and how- ever long and hard the road that lies ahead, we know now that we are no longer merely hitting back on the defensive. This is offensive action on a major scale, under- taken in a zone of operations that lies close to the main masses of the German and Italian Armies. It is the opening of the Second Front on that face of the European Con- tinent where the enemy is known to be least prepared to defend himself. Strategic Factors It is clear at once that the Am- erican landings in Africa, at the same time as General Montgomery continues his victorious pursuit of Marshal Romnrel's forces, com- pletely change the strategic pic- ture of the war. In the struggle for Egypt and Libya, the Italians and Germans have operated from In- comparably shorter supply lines than the British. Ships from Great Britain to Suez, circumnavigating the whole of the continent of Afri- ca, have had to travel the immense distance of 13,000 miles. By a alma liar route the distance from New York to Suez is 14,200 miles. It the American forces now suc- ceed in establishing firm beach- heads at several chosen strategic points and if the British are suc- cessful in capturing or annihilat- ing Rommel's remaining forces in North Africa, this whole situation will be transformed. The average LIFE'S LIKE THAT By Fred Neher 41. • O an^� �3*• c' .r •.m . (Copyright, 9,hpFred .tr. ccr s vogam ` Butch is fillip' out a withdrawal slip for the ,$25,700.75." supply -line distance from England to the. North African coast by sea will be reduced to 2,000 or 2,500 miles. This means that ships from England can bring supplies in one- fifth to orae -seventh the present time. It would he ainiosi the equiv- alent of multiplying fivefold the number of nlorehant ships avail- able for supply. It would mean a tremendous economy in Fillips and time, an incalculable increase in the ability of the American and British forces to hold what they had gained. Direct air communica- tion from England would be pos- sible.'Air and land routes could be established directly across Africa from east to west, The British and American forces in Africa could be firmly linked. The American landings in Algiers at last make it possible to end either the reality or the threat of aid and supplies by Vichy F rance from that direr - tion to German or Italian forces, They make it possible to cut off former avenues of escape for such forces. Above all, they expose the "under side" .of Europe to invasion. Risks Involved We must reckon with the fact that if the American landings pre- sent enormous opportunities, they also involve commensurate risks. They can bring hitherto innnobiliz- ed French land and naval forces into the war against us, Although Hitler has seized this excuse to occupy the rest of France, the Gen Mans and Italians will still have, if they are able to exploit them, shorter lines of communication to Libya, Tunisia and Algeria than the British and ourselves, Our forces in Africa must be constant- ly reinforced and supplied. The Axis, with whatever sea and air power it has or eau get into the Mediterranean, will attack our con- voys. Moral Factors From. this demonstration of our power and our purpose the con- quered peoples of Europe, impat- ient for the day when they can turn with fury on the Nazi beast, will draw fresh strength and cour- age. Our Russian allies, fighting superbly, and for the most part alone, through so many months, will see in the aro that reaches from North Africa to Southern Europe the shape of the Second Front which they have urged us to establish. The few still hesi- tant and still skeptical cations in our own hemisphere will find fresh evidence of the strength of our commitment to destroy the mili- tary power of Hitler's Germany. Hitler's Germany itself cannot fall to feel the impact of this news. Proof of that, and a sug- • geation of the effect which it may have on the morale of the German people, is to be found in the fact that Hitler did not dare to let a single clay pass without broadcast- ing his assurances that the land- ing of an American expeditionary force on a Second Front can be dismissed as unimportant. But it is, above all, in France, more even than in Germany or in Russia or in the smaller nations of Europe, that the news of our landing in Africa will have pro- found repercussions. What these will be, in the days that lie ahead, no man can say for certain. It is possible that the renegade Laval and the befuddled Petain may suc- ceed for a time in confusing French opinion and in delivering some of the strength of the French people into the service of their mortal enemy. But of this we feel certain: that any such success for the be- trayers of France will be of short duration, if it is achieved at all, and that above the din of battle in North Africa the French people will hear and answer the summons of de Gaulle, the real leader of France in this hour of crisis. On Side of France Through two Iong years of bitter misery and immense danger the French people have rejected every advance and every demand that Hitler has made for their "collab- oration." That they trope passion - ably for Hitior's destruction we may be sure. That we shall fight until we have achieved his destruc- tion they may be certain. In the very act of landing American boys on French soil in Northern Africa; we say to the French people: We are in this war on the side of France, that she may live again. This is the meaning of victory for us, and nothing short of this will do. The South Sea islands are the exposed peaks of vast, subnergea mountain ranges rising from the floor of the Pacific. REG'LAR FELLERS—Who's Who? CANADIAN JAP-SLAPPERS Pilot of an R.C.A.F. Kittyhawk fighter climbs aboard his plana before going aloft on a patrol in Alaska. Canada's airmen, serving with those of the United States in the northern outpost, have already drawn Jap blood. Germans F • rtify Channel Islands Britons with relatives and friends living under German oc- cupation on the Channel Isles have been given news of conditions there that is both comforting and disquieting. Latest semi-official reports said the Germans have 10,000 men stationed there. Technically, these men form an army of occupation. Actually, they are concerned mainly with keeping the whip poised over 25,000 foreign labor- ers imported from European na- tions to work on large fortifica- tions the Germans are throwing up with desperate speed. Expect British Attack Comforting is the inference that the Germans expect a Bri- tish attack. Because more than two years ago, when the British garrison was withdrawn and the Germans carne, the idea of need- ing fortifications would heve been laughable to them. They were the attackers and they were confident their next prove would be forward. Now they are trying to build in- surance against a British move that would smash them back. Disquieting is the news that de- spite the vastly -increased popula- tion of the little group of islands, the food stocks have not been in- creased and clothing stocks—ex- hausted long ago—have not beer, replenished. Causing even more concern are reports that some male British subjects have disap- peared from their homes recently. There is fear that they have been taken to continental Europe for forced labor. The Germans on the islands -- some of them civilians sent fol administrative jobs — generally are said to oe acting correctly to- ward British subjects, however. They hold little but contempt for the Russians, Poles, Norwegians, Dutch, Belgians and other:; among the imported laborers. The food ration is small. Heavy laborers are allowed six pounds of bread weekly (women 43 pounds) and four ounces of butter. Other known rations are (weekly) t Sugar, 2 oz.; potatoes, 5 lb.; er- satz coffee, 3 oz.; cocoa, 2 oz.; fat, 2 oz. Officially, the islanders can buy six ounces of neat each wet' , but usually there is none for sale. Radios are not allowed in homes in which there are no Ger- mans billeted. There are plentiful stocks of coal, but islanders ex- pect to see little of it. The Ger- man army of occupation will be comfortable, what is left going to the civilians. So the Channel islanders are on the verge of what seems like a winter more difficult than the last. They have only one enjoy. vent, one ray of hope, but it is a concrete one—the sight of R.A.F., R.C.A.F. and American air forces bornbers speeding almost 'daily across the channel to strike at the Nazi chains binding Europe. No Change Likely In Coffee Ration There is small likelihood of any alterations in Canadian tea and coffee rations during the life -time of the current ration book. It was said in Ottawa last week in reply to reports that Canada would fall in line with the new United States coffee ration. The American quota of one pound every five weeks is an odd figure which will not divide even- ly into pounds, months or weeks, For Canada to attempt to confo:nx would mean revamping her entire unit system. The change is further complicated by the fact that our tea and coffee are rationed on the same coupon. Have you tried Postum yet? With each successive cup, Postum's robust, satisfying flavor seems more delicious. It's easily made, requires loos sugar, and is very economical. !And because Postum contains neither caffeine nor tannin it's a safe beverage for everyone. • r. ?.. osTurd A CtnFAf. CF„FAACC 4 OZ. SIZE MAKES 50 CUPS ... 8 01 SIZE MAKES 100 CUPS P362 By GENE BYRNES -_ VICE PRESIDER o �.: L3Ai�IC J'. °PlbiidEAD DUFF' PRES tcEl4tt s" / /e! P «tatati .•\