NEWS OF THE WEEK
AFEW days ago an American official spokesman stated that the port of Antwerp would be in service in a week. The port installations, which were left by the Germans almost intact, are understood to be already in working order and the menace of enemy bombardment from the southern bank of the Scheldt and the island of Walcheren no longer exists. Nor need the threat of bombardment by V2 weapons be taken very 'seriously. But mines in the Scheldt have still to be swept, and some dredging of the silted channel may be necessary. But there are plenty of shallow draft vessels available, and, broadly speaking, it may be said that the Allies' supply problems, which have so far been solved almost miraculously, are at an end. That reassuring fact pretty certainly has its bearing on the operations General Dempsey has initiated this week ; supplies that have been built up in the past month can now be drawn on because it is safe to count on their early replenishment through Antwerp. It is, of course, too soon to discover, or even to conjecture, what the ultimate objective of the offensive in the so-called Maas triangle (between the river and two canals) is,lout it is either part of a much larger opera- tion or a move to secure positions from which that operation can be launched. Its early success is encouraging, but the small number of prisoners taken shows that the German main positions lie some way to the east. The great move in the west, synchronising no doubt with a great move in the east, cannot be far distant. Only six weeks more of 1944 remain, and it cannot be supposed that they are to be spent in static warfare. The whole of the western front, from near Breda to south of Metz (where the mystery of the Germans' failure to defend the powerful forts is still unsolved) is warming up—if such a metaphor may be used of operations in such weather as prevails. It will be surprising if the last month of 1944 does not see a sub- stantial change in the military situation at both ends of Europe.
