New York, Feb. 24.
Wellinformed quarters in Vichy now expect that a general Nazi offensive against Greet Britain is likely to be launched before the end of February or in early March when tides and currents in the English Channel will be in favour of such an attack to a greater extent than at any other time of the year, the New York "Times" reported.
Private advices reaching Vichy from German-occupied Channel ports continue to report that intensive preparations for ən offensive are going on.
These preparations, the New York "Times" said, include construction of Subterranean air fields from which planes would be catapulted against England without use of runways. "The preparations also include concentrations of an estimated 1,000 freighters and barges in invasion ports, the daily stated.
Moreover, troop movements on a large scale throughout French-occupied areas are likely to figure in the invasion projects, according to the daily.
There are even rumours circulating that the Germans sre about to extend the forbidden zone to include a strip about 20 miles long in width along the coast from Dunkirk to Brest.
Meanwhile, expert opinion seems to agree that the German High Command is unlikely to seek to retrieve the situation in the Mediterranean, at least for the present time, because the Axis Powers have not gained mastery of the sea in that sector of the war.—Domei.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.