NEWS OF THE WEEK
0N the ninth day of the invasion the length of the Allied line is something over eighty miles and the depth of its greatest pene- tration some twenty miles. The advance, moreover, in spite of the growing intensity of the fighting, still continues. An enemy counter- offensive might have been expected before this, but so far Rundstedt has been capable of mounting only local counter-attacks. Mont- gomery's tactics of ceaseless attack appear to have compelled the German command to throw in its armour prematurely, and the tanks cannot now disengage to re-group for a concerted offensive. It is too soon to decide that no such offensive can now materialise, but the general situation is not only as good as could' have been hoped but rather better. There are large Allied forces in the beach areas still to be thrown in, to say nothing of the reinforcements being ceaselessly ferried across an English Channel .which to all appear- ance is as safe as if U-boats had never been invented. It is true that the naval guns have been of immense value to the invading forces, which will soon be moving beyond their range, but the air arm is always there, and its destruction of communications may prove the major ingredient of victory. The achievement of landing some hundreds of thousands of troops, with heavy as well as light equipment, on open beaches in heavy weather against fortifications elaborated not through months but through years is something un- paralleled in military history, and it would hardly have been believed possible if it had not been proved' so. Marshal Stalin's generous tribute is as merited as it is welcome ; there is characteristically sardonic humour in the reference to Napoleon's fruitless and futile procrastination in the invasion of Britain, and "Hitler the Hysteric's" failure even to attempt to carry out his loudly-trumpeted threat of invasion, as contrasted with the Allies' triumphant achieve- ment in Normandy. There has hardly been sufficient recognition here—though the omission is obviously only inadvertent—of what is owed to the British Minister of Defence in that capacity.
