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Zurich Herald, 1943-04-08, Page 6.t ,geraa against any enemy attack on the wooded British Columbia shore are these Pacific a.,ast Milia. -a kangers. Armed with rifle, axe and map, these Canadian sharpshooters patrol the picturesque western wilderness where a foe might conceivably hide. They are also trained for guerilla warfare. VOICE O F 1 H E PRESS BEER PROBLEM One of the most amusing spec- tacles of this period is presented by the individual who was a rabid champion of all-out war a few months ago but who now threat- ens a revolution if he has to sacri- fice his normal intake of beer. Why should beer escape ration- ing when real necessities of life-- froan which it is most distinctly excluded—are in such short sup- ply that they are distributed by coupon? —Brockville Recorder and Times —0— EXPERT SPOTTERS Women will be trained as air- craft spotters, in order to teaeh the art to orale members of the Royal Canadian Air Force. They should do a grand jab. Anyone who can, after a two-second glance, tell the color, material, style, and even the probable price, of every stitch another wo- man is wearing,is just naturally cut out for that sort of work. —Windsor Star —0— THE THREE H'S This Spring and Summer it will be the patriotic thing to drop the three Ws in favor of the three Ire — hoeing, hitching and har- --Stratford Beacon -Herald —0— LOOKING AHEAD Travelling aboard the future sky -train,. -which is to consist •of a easing of gliders, an experienced wirewalker can easily get back to .the diner. —Winnipeg Tribune —o— REASON WHY A commanding officer cannot have his wife with him at the trent because he is expected to die the commanding officer. —Brandon Sun —p— R. A. F. PUN A young wife was recently accused of running away from her R. A. F. husband. A bolt !horn the blue. —Me ntreal Star —0— ANALYSIS OF LIFE Every day more people find rut that life is what you make It rather than just what you make. —Kitchener Record Dutch Seacaptain utwits Germans A high °facial of the Pan -.'rite• r- iloan Lines vouches for this story at a Dutch captain of a seagoing tugboat whose craft was eommen- $ieered when the Germans look Holland, writes Walter Winchell. FM task, the Nazis informed him, would he to tow a string of barges loaded with German soldiers out tate the turbulent Cbannel each day so that. they could get 'used to eensickness, in preparation for the onaning invasion of England. Day after flay he cheerfully esernsed aka unhappy oargo to the most rbel: ret. parts of the Channel, got them gond and ill, brought them eaok. Filially the captain suggested to Ms commanding officers, "Why not have the soldiers get used to actual invasion conditions by tak- ing them out et night instead of In the daytime?" They agreed. 1"+xt night, the captain took out Ws string of six barges, towed them uenr, eaoti, h to the British toast to ensure their capture and etzt thein loose- Then he made for tate open sea and reached Bea Nevada, where he now quietly elle late ttighoet trade, THE WAR - WEEK — Commentary on Current Events Europe h Hitler's Fortress: Is It impregnable To Allies? How strong is the Festuug Eur- opa that apparently plays so prom- inent a role in 'German defense plans? What parts of it are nature - built and where had the "Organiz- ation Todt" to fill in gaps with man -built fortifications? Where are its slopes and outposts that can be abandoned without inviting ca- tastrophe, and where are its main lines that must be held at any cost? A careful study of the many complicated factors involved leads to the conclusion that uuless their resources are too seriously strain- ed in Russia or North Africa or their war industries and inner transport lines too badly damaged by aerial attack the Germans have at their command e. "last-ditoh" fortress that will be able to with- etand everything but the fullest possible striking power of the Un- ited Nations: From behind their far-flung European battlements the Ger- mans will be able to make large - se le military sorties, says Ernest >i. Pisko in the Christian Science Monitor. The plains of France and Belgium, and those at the foothills of the Alpe and the Carpathians leave ample elbow -roam for am- bitious offensive -defensive man- euvers. Moreover, while a retreat to the Festung Europa would bar Hitler from the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, it would keep North Sea and Baltic ports in his pos- session. The submarine warfare would go on. Forts Rushed by •uermans No particular knowledge of mili- tary strategy or tactics is neces- sary to know that only in the South and Southeast of Europe does a natural defense line exist. This line runs from San Sebastian at the Spanish -French frontlet' straight across the continent to Bulgaria's Black Sea coast, It is formed by the Pyrenees. the Alps, the Dinaric Alps, the Bulgarian mountains, and the northward -bent semicircle of the Carpathians, and Is interrupted only along the 300 -mile stretch of France's Mediterranean coast. However, the situation is differ- ent at the eastern, northern and western fringes of Europe. Except for the Pripet Marshes which make part of the Polish -Ukrainian frontier impassable, the borders of the continent are relatively easy to invade unless prefected by man -built fortifications. Tire German High C:tutneand, in preparing to meet an invasion from whatever directiou it may come, has been building fortifica- tions at a frwnticc pare front the barren fjords of Norway down to France's lovely Cote d'Aznre. Norway and Low Countries In Norway, apart from tens of thousands of native labor con- scripts, some 200,000 Germane, 50,000 Russiau prisoners or war, 11,000 Italians, and lesser cumbers of Poles, Czechs, Danes, French, Belgians, Dutch and Serbs are em- ployed in the building of fortifica• - tions. Kristiansand, Stavanger, Ber- gen, Trondheim, and Narvik have been strongly fortified and tt has even been rumored that the Ger= mans built a defense line some- where across Norway. The extent of anti -invasion pre- parations in Holland can be gath- ered from the fact that during the last few months almost the entire civilian population has been re- moved from the coastal areas. Large sections of the waterfront cities were torn down to make room for mine -fields, tank trawe concrete piIl-7ioxes""and "gte '0m placements. Reports from. The Hague indicate that the Dutch Capital looks worse now thee Rot- terdam otterdam did after the air bombard- ment in May, 1940. The coastal defense zone in Bel- gium is said to be 15 to 20 miles deep. Here, too, civilians have been either evacuated farther in- land or• drastically restricted in their movements. New fortifica- tions have been erected in the Province of Namur along the Meuse River in order to check a possible Allied attack from North- ern France. The Coast Defenses The Channel coast and the At- lantic coast of France were forti- fied in 1941 and 1942. The whole shoreline Is studded with concrete gun emplacements of all calibers. ,After the Allied invasion of North .Africa the defense zone was ex- tended to the Mediterranean coast. Workers of the Organization Todt are said to be working on a defense belt some 300 miles long and five miles deep. A second line of fortifications was built between Lille and Amiens, running south- eastward along the former bor- der of unoccupied France• up to Switzerland. There is, in addition, still the old "Siegfried Line" or "West Wall," built itt 1938-1939, which guards the German frontier against attacks from French ter- ritory. In Italy, where the coast line ie too long to be fortified ' properly In its entire .length, the main work was done on Sicily and on the southeastern tongue of the pen- insula guarding the entrance to the Adriatic Sea. The second line of defense runs far up In the north along the former Austritut-Italian border. Fortifications are being built in southern Greece, and Salonika, at the mouth of the ,Vardar 'Valley, has been transformed into a for- midable strougeoiut. Munitions and Fuel Stored Similar work is going on in Thrace, Macedonia, Serbia, AI - bailie and on some points of the Dalmatian coast, Neither has the Nazi defense program 'neglected such European island -outposts as Sardinia, Crete, and the Dodeca- nese. Weapons, ammunition and mo- tor fuel are being transported iu large quantities to all strategic points, Except for gasoline, the strain on the Reich's reserves is not as heavy as one might pre- sume. The booty from early Nazi conquests now comes in handy. Large caliber artillery pieces from the former Czechoslovakian bor- der fortifications and the French Maginot Line are now in position at the fringes of Europe. However, all this extensive work does not mean the German High Command contemplates de- fending the whole of Europe. Such a proposition is ruled out by sheer lack of manpower. Most of the newly built defenses are intended to delay rather than to stave off the attacker. Areas of Abandonment Moreover, it is reasonable to assume that Getman plans en- visage the abandonment of con- siderable parts of Europe. In this category belong Sardinia, Italy with. Sicily, the coastal region of Cr o a ti a, Montenegro, Albania, Greece, and even some portions of Bulgaria. In the North, Norway, Finland, Estonia, and about two thirds of Latvia are likely to be written off. The same applies to a goodly por- tion of France and Belgium, while Holland and Luxemburg can be ex- pected to be defended with ex- treme tenacity. Thus, the innermost fortress wall, that is, the Iine where the Nazis will throw in every last bit of their strength, runs roughly from the Dutch-Belgtau border region southeastward, protecting the Ruhr Valley, then southward somewhat inside France to Ben- tancon, skirting the Swiss frontier, including Lyon, and from there taking a sharp turn to the East along the Alps, through Austria, then through the Yugoslav moun- • tains , .southward to Nish, and northward along the Carpathians up to .Cernauti and either via Brest,Litovsk to Memel, or taking the Pripet Marshes in -its stride, up to the•hvina River and to Riga. Lone : Fighter Pilot Defends The Fleet Mighty Mediterranean Fleet Air Arm Grew From Single Fighter Pilot A single fighter pilot was the sole air defence for the entire Brit- ish Eastern Mediterranean fleet for a time during the early part of the war, the Admiralty disclosed recently. From such a humble beginning grew the mighty fleet air arm which, with a daring surprise at- tack the night of Nov- 11, 1940, struck a paralyzing blow at the Italian fleet as it lay at anchor in Tarauto harbor. The story was told for the first time by the Admiralty iu a book- let "East of Malta and West of Suez," which detailed the work of .,,the Eastern Mediterranean fleet in the first 18 months of the war. This fleet was without aircraft carriers for the fust nine months of war, the Admiralty said. Then, in May, 1940, the 20 -year-old car- rier Eagle — since sunk — arrived from tife East Indies. The Fleet Is Saved She had two squadrons of tor- pedo -carrying Swordfish planes and later acquired four Gladiator light- ers as the basis for a fighter squad- ron. But there was not a fighter pilot aboard. So for a while the flying master of the Ea.gle, Cmdr. C. L. Keighley -Peach, went up alone to defend the entire fleet. On one occasion he went up with a bullet still in his thigh from a previous encounter and shot down an attacking enemy plane, Later Cntdr. Keighley -Peach trained two of the bomber pilots aboard the Eagle as fighter pilots, the booklet said, and between then they destroyed 11 enemy air- craft and "somehow contrived to Montgomery: "Forward To Tunis; Drive The Enemy Into The Sea" (By a Staff Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor with the Allied Forces in North Africa) On the eve of the battle now surging along the Mareth line, General Sir Bernard L. Montgom. ery gave the troops the following Message: "On the fifth of March, Mar- shal Erwin Rommel addressed his troops in. the mountains overlook- ing our positions and said that if they did not take Medellin and force the Eighth Army to with- draw, then the days of Axis forces in North Africa were numbered, "The next day, the sixth of March, he attacked the Eighth Army. He should have known that the Eighth Army never with- draws, therefore his attack could end only in failure—which it did. "We will now 'show Rommel that he was right in the statement he made to his troops. "The days of Axis forces in North Africa are indeed num- bered. "The Eighth Army and the Western Desert Air Force, to- gether constituting one fighting machine, are ready to advance. We all know what that means; and so does the enemy. "In the battle that is now to start, the Eighth Army will de, Stray the enemy now facing us n the Mareth positions, will burst through the Gabes gap, will then drive northward on Sfax and Sousse and finally Tunis. "We will not stop or let up till Tunis has been captured and the enemy has either given up the struggle or been pushed into the sea. "The operations now about to begin will mark the close of the campaign in North Africa. Once the battle starts the eyes of the• whole world will be on the Eighth Army and millions of people will. listen to the wireless every day— hoping anxiously for good' news, We must not let them be anxious. Let us see that they get good news and plenty of it every day.. "If each one of us does his duty and pulls his full weight,. then nothing can stop the Eighth Army. And nothing will stop it. "With faith in God and the justice of our cause, let us go for- ward to victory. "Forward to Tunis. Drive the enemy into the sea!" preserve the fleet from a major casualty." "In the easy days of the war cue naval forces achieved on sea tate sort of thing that the R.A.F. did in the Battle of Britain," It added, Nine Out Of Ten Say "Rash-uhn" -With all the talk about ration- ing, says '"The Pleasures of Pub• lishing," it is inevitable that peo- ple who say ray-sltuhn should be irritated by hearing others say rash-uhn, and vice -versa, The note under "ration" in "War 'Words: Recommended Pronunciations" by W. Cabell Greet offers •comfort to both. sides, The ray -shut-in group are follow- ing the tendency of speakers of New England and the northeastern sections of the country. The rash- uhn crowd are in a goodly com- pany which includes President Roosevelt, Wins ton Churchill, James F. Byrnes, director of eco- nomic stabilization; Leon Hender- son, Elmer Davis and Eddie Riek- enbaoker, In fact, if you use raah- uhn, you are going along with probably nine out of ten Ameri- cans in all walks of life, as well as with the British (whose dic- tionaries are inclined to ignore ray-ehelm) ; but if you prefer ray- ahuhn, we can't call you wrong. It seems to be purely a matter of individual choice. Live and let • live, we say. Bigger And Better Nazi Submarines, The submarines Germany is us- ing today are as far ahead of the U-boat that sank the Inrsttania in 191-5 as the four -engine bomber is ahead of the Sopwith Camels that lumbered over the German lines 25 years ago, says The Cornwall Standard -Freeholder. They are better than 200 feet overall with a 20 -foot beam and a submerged displacement of 882 tons, They carry 12 to 13 tor- pedoes plus a quick -firing gun of four -inch calibre or larger. Carry- ing 45 hien, they can cruise on the surface at 17% to 20 knots and have a range of 14,520 miles. They have a double hull with oil com- partmenta between to absorb the shook of depth charges and deep water. This construction permits them to withstand the pressure of 100 fathoms or 600 feet of water and makes it necessary to lay a depth charge within 15 or 20 feet to send the U -beat still deeper on a one-way trip to the, bottom. Ger- many is turning out 26. to 30 e month. Food Ia Arrununition It's up to us now to get out and dig. The people of Britain did. Cabbages grew in the heart of London. Lettuce sprouted on the tope of bomb shelter's. Hands that swung the golf club reached to pick - ap the hoe. Nimble fingers that danced over typewriter keys took , on the task of weeding. LIFE'S LIKE THAT By Fred Neher t4oloasett er cnnoteitt,ne t+ "Now if l come in for any more chocolates this week, don't you let me have any." Bluey and Curley of the Anzacs lat. ME ( FIRST OF AI.I..,,i JOINS UP.. ABOUT Yat1 3Ei.F ` 9 CtTS A UNIFORM..,.�t'1 DRESSED UP, BLL EY/ "Now he's confessed up." viliTst A FULL Kfr..,1 was LOADED UP, AI( LAST KONA 1 WAS BLOWN UP..,. By Gurney, (Australia ..a NOW 'M BANDAGED UP, AND Fl-AMIA1' WELL. 1Bia UPI/ 1