Arnhem battle crucial, Washington believes
Washington (UP) –
Military observers, confident of a final Allied victory in the great battle now raging along the Rhine for the Arnhem bridgehead, said tonight that this campaign may be the most decisive of the war.
Whatever chance the Allies have of ending the war before next spring may be lost, they said, if the Germans succeed in holding off our heavy armor long enough to annihilate the airborne army now hanging on to the Rhine positions.
If the Allies break through the enemy positions in force, they would have a chance to end the war before winter, the observers said. This breach would mean that the West Wall had been outflanked, the barrier of the Rhine River bridges and the Ruhr road to Berlin thrown open.
The battle is now in its most delicate stage for the Allies, seesawing and swirling with such rapidity that it is impossible to get a clear picture of it here. However, some decision should become apparent within the next week, it was believed.