Pacific News-Review
pp. 3-4 · Read in the full issue
Notes And Comment On
The Progress Of The War
From June 15 To July 13
June 15: The general situation has most commentators puzzled. No German bombers are attacking Britain at pre sent, which indicates that German aerial strength is concentrated elsewhere; and, although Germany was expected to con tinue her attack upon the British in the Middle East through Crete, Cyprus and Syria, there has been no advance in this direction. On the other hand, there are insistent reports that there are huge concentrations of German forces upon the German-Russian border, which means that Germany is going to fight with the Soviet.
If Germany and Russia should begin fighting, the war will enter a new and very different phase, far more favourable for Britain. At least 2,000,000 German troops, with the hitherto unbeaten Pan zer divisions, are on the Russian frontier, but few people dare hope for a clash between the two great Powers. If it occurs, Germany must be supremely con fident of a quick victory over Russia.
Any other outcome of such a move clearly would mean the ultimate destruc tion of Germany. If she is being forced into such a move, it is because she must have oil, wheat and other materials; and, if she cannot quickly overthrow Russia, her condition will be desperate.
June 15: Australian forces, moving up the coast of Syria, co-operating with Free French and British forces in the centre, and British forces coming over land from Irak, are concentrating on Damascus, capital of Syria, which is now virtually surrounded. The allied forces, step by step, are taking possession of southern and central Syria.
June 16: Russia semi-offlcially states that Germany is not seeking any con cessions from Russia and that there is no prospect of a clash between them.
June 16: A German pocket battleship on Friday was badly damaged by British aerial torpedoes, off the coast of Norway, when going out into the Atlantic on a raiding expedition. It returned towards Kiel.
June 16: Increasingly strong squadrons of fighters and bombers are now, every day, making wider and wider sweeps over German-occupied France, attacking enemy planes and ground establishments wherever they find them.
These are remarkable operations, inso far that they show the British steadily gaining control of the sky over the coastal districts, and the zone of aerial combat shifting from over Britain to over northern France.
June 16; Commentators say that Ger many’s concentration of troops on the Russian frontiers is a plan to conceal pre parations in Norway and elsewhere for another attempt to invade Britain. It may also be intended to put pressure on Russia for economic concessions. They forecast a German-Russian agreement, under which Russia will grant substan tial supplies of wheat and oil.
June 16: Strong British forces to-day commenced an attack on enemy columns in Eastern Libya. A tank battle is in progress in the neighbourhood of Solium.
June 17: The British, on the western frontier of Egypt, penetrated enemy lines as far as Fort Capuzzo. The enemy strongly counter-attacked. The British retired to their original positions.
June 17: It is now believed that Ger many is demanding from Russia full control of the Ukraine and a passage for German troops across Caucasia, whence they could dominate the Russian oilfields, enter Irak and Iran, and outflank the British armies in the Middle East.
June 17; United States Government has ordered all German consulates and agencies in USA to be closed by July 10 —the result of the German Government using this organisation for espionage.
June 18: An amazing system called “radio location”, developed by British scientists for detecting the approach of any enemy aircraft or ships, by means of ether waves, is now officially dis closed. No raider can approach Britain undetected.
June 19: Turkey and Germany have signed a 10-years treaty of friendship.
The treaty includes a clause safeguard ing the Anglo-Turkish treaty of mutual assistance (October, 1939). This may be part of Germany’s plans in relation to Russia.
June 19: Although America is buzzing with rumours of pending events of great importance, very little is said in Britain.
Commentators seem completely puzzled about the huge concentrations of Ger man and Russian forces.
June 19; For the eighth night in suc cession, the RAF heavily raided Ger many and occupied France, while day light sweeps are regularly made by very numerous forces of British bombers and fighters.
June 20: Both Imperial and enemy forces suffered heavy losses in armoured vehicles and personnel in the battle around Solium and Halfaya Pass (Libya).
The battle was indeterminate.
June 20: The British and Free French in Syria are making steady, slow pro gress, and are in the suburbs of Damas cus. The Australians, having captured Sidon, are pushing slowly up the coast, towards Beirut.
June 20; Newspapers insist there is tension between Germany and Russia: but a German official spokesman denied that Germany had begun to invade Rus sia, or that border clashes had occurred.
Russia says her armies are engaged in large-scale military exercises.
June 20: Germany and Italy demand the closure of USA consulates in their countries, in retaliation for America closing their consulates.
June 22: This morning, at daylight, German armies invaded Russia, and fighting is now taking place along the entire frontier, from the Arctic to the Black Sea. The Finns are assisting the Germans in the north and the Rou manians in the south.
Hitler, in a proclamation broadcast after the German armies had marched, offered some unconvincing reasons for his action, and accused the Soviet of having betrayed the German-Russian Non- Aggression Pact of August, 1939.
Molotov (Russia’s Foreign Minister), in a later broadcast, said that the German aggression was “a murderous act by gang ster German fascists”. Germany, in spite of her pact of non-aggression and friendship, had suddenly hurled herself upon Russia, without any warning, or declaration of war.
This wholly unexpected and startling development alters the world’s strate gical situation, and profoundly modifies the position of the Western Democracies.
All commentators expect that the Ger man Panzer divisions will quickly cut the Russian armies to pieces—but, nevertheless, the enormous masses of Russia will suffice to keep Germany’s military might fully engaged for some time, thus allowing Britain and USA time to develop their mechanical strength against Germany’s western frontier.
June 22: Damascus, capital of Syria, surrendered at 3 p.m. on June 21. Bit
ter fighting preceded the fall of the city and fighting is still going on between the Allies and Vichy French in differ ent parts of Syria.
June 22: President Roosevelt described the sinking of the American freighter, "Robin Moor", by a German submarine as "the ruthless act of an international outlaw". He said that commensurate action would be taken.
June 23: In a striking speech, made a few hours after Germany struck, the Prime Minister (Mr. Churchill) declared that Britain would give Russia any help within her power. Britain was not con cerned with Russia’s politics, he said— Britain was the ally of any men, any where, who fought for their personal liberty against the ruthless might of the mechanised and brutalised hordes of Germany.
June 23: The daylight sweeps of the RAF over occupied France and Belgium and the nightly attacks by RAF upon German cities, are growing in intensity, and are designed to assist the Russians.
That these attacks have been going on for 10 days indicates that, whatever the newspapers may have said, the British Government was aware of the impending attack upon Russia, and therefore used its growing air force to embarrass the common enemy.
June 23: Intense fighting is proceeding along 2,000 miles of battlefront between Germans and Russians, and the whole position is confused.
The Russians are standing on a front created when they moved westward last year into Latvia, Estonia. Lithuania, Poland and Bessarabia. Under German pressure, they probably will retire slowly to their old fortified line (Stalin Line), which is on the soil of Russia proper, 50 to 100 miles further east, June 23: The Russo-German develop ment has caused confusion and conster nation in Japan. Japan has a treaty of friendship and non-aggression with Germany and Russia, and does not know what to do. Urgent meetings of Cabinet are being held.
June 24; Russia has accepted an offer by Britain to send economic and military mission to Moscow.
June 24: Hungary, as a member of the Axis Pact, has declared war on Russia.
June 25: While gigantic battles on the Russo-German frontier give few indica tions of results, it appears that gen erally the Germans are being held. Few expect this resistance to last long. Britain and USA are being urged to take advan tage of every hour to perfect their defences.
June 26: The Russian Air Force made devastating attacks on the Roumanian oilfields, and upon the Roumanian Black Sea port of Constanza. This may cripple Germany’s oil supply, and alter her plans to transport troops across the Black Sea to the Russian oilfields, in Caucasia.
June 26: Italy, having declared war on Russia, is sending an expeditionary force against the Russians. There is no indi cation of extreme alarm in Russia.
June 26: The RAF battering of Ger many by night, and northern France by day has reached a new peak of ferocious intensity. The attack is now in its fifteenth successive day. The RAF is using as many planes in its raids over Germany as the Germans used over England last September.
June 29: German troops from Norway have crossed Finland and are marching against Murmansk. Murmansk is Russia’s
only open port. It is in the Arctic, but is free from ice. Russian ports in the Baltic and Black Sea are, of course, closed by the enemy.
June 29: To-day, a week after the Ger mans attacked Russia, it is clear that the main German thrusts in the central and Baltic areas are being held, while they have made little progress on the Bessa rabian front.
June 29: After hesitation, the London Stock Exchange evidently decided that the entry of Russia into the war will assist the Allies, because it reports the briskest week of business for a long time.
June 30: Authoritative opinion in Lon don is that Germany, after eight days of fighting against Russia, has failed to achieve anything like the successes she expected, July 1: The RAF continues its attacks on the enemy. During last week the enemy lost 183 planes and the RAF 65.
July 1; Leading American commenta tors still insist that the swift movement of events on the central European front indicate a decisive defeat of Russia before long.
July 1: Japan is still in a condition of agitation over the European war. An announcement is “expected at any moment”.
The fact is that Japan does not know where she stands. The Fascist elements would like to fight beside Germany, but the more responsible classes fear to take any drastic action. If Japan moves against Russia, the United States will move against Japan. Japan would like to drive southwards, to take advantage of the embarrassed situation of Britain and the Dutch East Indies—but dare not.
Japan will remain neutral so long as Germany does not gain any outstanding victory over Britain or Russia.
July 3: Germany is slowly advancing, and Russia slowly retiring—but unbroken and in good order.
July 3: Stalin, Russian dictator, said in his “scorched earth” broadcast that as the Red Army retreated everything of use tp the Germans would be destroyed.
No gfain, animals, petrol, railways, roll ing stock, must be left behind. Every Russian must carry on guerilla warfare.
The Germans, commenting from their radio stations, declared that the Russians will be bitterly punished for all such destruction.
July 6: After two weeks of Russo-Ger man war, the position appears as four main German thrusts —one, a three pronged drive from Finland against the Murmansk area; two, a drive from East Prussia and North Poland aimed against Leningrad in the north, and Moscow, in the east; third, a drive against Kiev, in the Ukraine, across South Poland; four, a drive against Southern Ukraine, across Bessarabia. The Germans have made some progress in all these drives, but they still are not far from the old fron tier of Russia.
July 6: General Sir Archibald Wavell has been appointed British Commander in-Chief in India, and General Sir A.
Auchenleck becomes Commander-in- Chief in the Middle East.
July 6: British Foreign Secretary (Mr.
Eden) said Britain was not in any cir cumstances prepared to negotiate with Hitler at any time, on any subject.
July 6: British submarines in the Mediterranean sank several supply ships, crippled a merchant cruiser and sank Italian cruiser, “Gorizia” (10,000 tons).
July 6: Italy’s resistance in Eritrea, Abyssinia and Somaliland is now practic ally ended and the British are com pletely in charge of the situation.
July 7: Germans now officially admit that their loud-spoken hopes of a fort
night ago, of “a six weeks’ walk-over on the Russian front”, must be modified, and that there is now every possibility of the war going on into the autumn.
If that is really the German view, there must be gloom in Berlin. The more responsible commentators scarcely yet dare give voice to their hope that the Russian armies are big enough, and suffi ciently well trained and equipped to hold the mechanised might of the enormous German Army. But the fact that the German armies still are being held indi cates that the Russians are far stronger than had been dreamed of, and definitely gives rise to the hope that the course of the war now may be altered. How long can Germany stand up to a well equipped and ruthless Russia on her eastern frontier, while the ever-growing RAF of Britain batters her mercilessly, day and night, in the west? How long, under these changing conditions, can the enslaved masses of France, Belgium, Hol land, Norway, Czechoslovakia, Greece and Yugoslavia be held down?
July 7: The flow of American war goods to Egypt under the Lease or Lend Act is now about one shipload per day— tanks, planes and guns.
July 8; Latest reports indicate that the German blitz against Russia is slowing down—at least, temporarily.
Stockholm reports say the Russians are more than holding their own. Other reports say the Germans have paid a terribly high price in men, materials and precious time for a mere approach to the Stalin Line. Germans, however, claim that they have pierced the line in sev eral places.
July 8: United States naval forces have landed in Iceland to supplement the British garrison there—a clear indication of American determination to protect the sealanes against German interference.
It is believed that President Roosevelt has ordered the American Navy to clear the Atlantic shipping routes of surface raiders and submarines.
July 9: British Prime Minister says the American occupation of Iceland is “one of the most important events since the war began”.
July 9: In what is now officially de scribed as an air invasion, the RAF made further raids on Germany on Tuesday night. Berlin admits the raid ers penetrated to central Germany.
July 10: The Russians claim that they are strongly countering the three main German drives, and there are indications that the German progress is slow.
July 10: There have been negotiations between the British and the Vichy French in Syria for the surrender of Beirut and an armistice in Syria gener ally. General Dentz has been instructed by Vichy to seek an armistice, but noth ing appears to have been done, and latest report is that fighting is still going on.
July 11: British production of guns and tanks increased by more than 50 per cent, in the first quarter of 1941, and by more than 100 per cent, in the second quarter, compared with the last quarter of 1940.
July 11: United States naval forces are landing in Ulster, to occupy a naval base that has been prepared for them there.
July 13: Vichy Government has agreed to British terms for an armistice in Syria and hostilities have ceased.
July 13: Agreement signed between Britain and Russia provides: I.—The two Governments undertake to assist and support each other in every way against Germany; 2.— Neither will seek a separate peace.