Editorial: Forbidding future
Allied intelligence is picking up more and more evidence of internal rifts and disorders behind the German fighting lines in France. It makes very pleasant reading.
For example, there is the report, as relayed by Maj. Gen. E. R. Quesada, commander of the U.S. 9th Air Force, that German ground forces are feuding with the Luftwaffe and stealing its fuel and other supplies. According to Gen. Quesada, ground troops needing gasoline for their hard-pressed mechanized units may operate a little longer but the ground troops have to get along without air support.
Then there is the growing activity of French patriot guerrillas and saboteurs. They are cutting communications and transportation facilities right and left. In the mountains of southeastern France, the Maquis are fighting in such strength that they have repelled several German punitive expeditions.
The Germans are particularly annoyed by operations of guerrilla bands in the south because Berlin regards that area as the likely spot for another Allied invasion of France, in which case the guerrillas would be of immediate and direct assistance to the invaders.
Naturally, the Germans do not relish the prospect of fighting against enemies in front of them and at their backs, too, but there doesn’t seem to be much they can do about it outside the borders of their own country. As long as they are in France, they face growing Allied armies in front and strengthened French patriot operations behind.
And even when they retire eventually behind the frontier defenses of Germany, there is no guarantee that the German people will view with complaisance the prospect of being on the receiving end of invasion for a change. Furthermore, there are millions of enslaved foreign workers in Germany who can be counted on for increasing acts of sabotage as the tide of liberation sweeps closer.