The war in its unexpected form continues to puzzle the world. Here are millions of men facing one another with an immense aggregation of wonderful machines. It is a voluntary deadlock at the end of the first three months. We do not want movement because we are mobilizing the Empire. The Germans hold back because they missed the tide, as it were, and allowed the chance of the lightning attack to escape them owing to political manceuvring.
Yet, these causes apart, could it have been anything but stalemate as an opening? Itbegan with two parallel lies of the greatest fortifications in the world. War of movement was ruled out in favour of siege operations. Even these have not begun. The Germans want to change the venue, give the Maginot Line a miss, and draw the Allies into the Low Countries. A war there would suit them as all three arms would be at the North Sea coast in ce-operation for land, naval and air operations. If defeated, Germany planes to fall back on the Rhine and hold out there.
Strategy of 1940
The German assumption is that while operating in Belgium and Holland in 1940 the Siegfried Line would secure the southern frontier. The Allies have their own views on that and General Keitel's fear is that the French Army might get behind him into the Rhineland and cut the Belgian force off. He undoubtedly hedged when Hitler wanted to invade Holland and it is reported that he declared his reserves were untrained and the winter should be spent in preparation. He is probably right.
The German Army is only four years old and the nation has missed years of conscript training. N cannot be as good as the French or British and so far as operations have gone it seems to lack leadership in the units. It would be unwise to stress this, but the French who have engaged the enemy say there is little initiative shown and assaults are checked quickly. Hitler is probably beginning to see now that the generals who advised him not to use the army yet, were right. He sacked several for saying so, but he has landed himself in a tight corner and dare not sack Keitel.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.