NEWS OF THE WEEK
ON the third anniversary of the invasion of Poland General Sikorski, Prime Minister of the first country to suffer the devas- tation of this war, gave some conservative estimates of Germany's losses in men and material. He spoke of i,5oo,00o Germans killed, and of r,000,000 unlikely to return to the ranks out of 3,000,000 wounded. He said that to,000 German aircraft had been lost on the western and southern fronts and even more on the eastern front. He enumerated -also the many German warships that have been destroyed. These various figures should be considered together as well as separately, for this is a total war, and strength in one sphere has a strict relationship to strength in other spheres. At what point will attrition begin to have its deadly results? The offensive in Russia shows that in spite of losses the Nazis are still able to concentrate colossal, though not unlimited, forces on the principal land front. But reports from Germany show that to achieve this they had to withdraw, temporarily at least, men from the factories—one estimate puts the number at a million. It is on the production side that Germany is feeling at the moment some of the effects of attrition, though we must not underestimate her vast accumulations of material. Our bombardments of Germany, too, are damaging her productive power. So far as aircraft are concerned, it seems certain that the stage has now come when her production, at the best, cannot do- more than replace her losses. Russia, of course, is suffering as Germany is from losses of men and still more of material and productive capacity, but in the long run the latter will be more than counter-balanced by the maintenance of our own production and the flow of equipment from America. The greatest cause of anxiety is the immediate danger in Russia. If that is surmounted, then we have the prospect envisaged by General Sikorski—the gradual exhaustion of Germany so that in 1943 the United Nations will be in the ascendant and ready for decisive blows. When that time comes a powerful, well-equipped Polish Army will take its part.
