Still Big . . . Still Good?

The Enemy

Germany still has a whopping big army: somewhere between 295 and 325 field divisions and some 11,000,000 men in all services.* Of these, at least 195 divisions confront the Red Army (see p. 21). Just where the rest are, and how good they are, the Allied armies will learn as they move into Europe. According to the best reports available last week:

>Under Generals von Falkenhorst, Daluege and Dietl, there are twelve Nazi divisions in Norway, five in Denmark, five to seven in Finland. Many of the troops in Norway are over age, wounded in other campaigns.

>To defend the western invasion coast, Field Marshal Karl Rudolf Gerd von Rundstedt has three divisions in Holland, four in Belgium, 33 in France (five guarding the south coast, the rest divided between central France and the Channel).

>Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, key man of Mediterranean defense, supposedly has 13 divisions in northern Italy busy digging defenses across the top of the boot. Another seven in the south, under Rommel-hating Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, soon may be joining Rommel. An indication that Nazi strength in upper Italy may have been exaggerated came from a London Daily Express correspondent. He slipped into Italy from Switzerland, found "a trifling German army" in the region of Milan. One possibility: Rommel has his troops well dug into the border mountains, is policing the cities with a skeleton force.

>Tough, tank-wise Field Marshal Baron Maximilian von Weichs has 16 divisions spread through blazing Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Greece, probably wishes he had 16 more.

>Within Germany and Poland are some 17 divisions. Colonel General Fritz Fromm commands the Landwehr in Germany.

Swedish Correspondent Arvid Fredborg, who emerged last May after two years in Germany, testified to the quality of the 1943 Wehrmacht in his book published in Stockholm last week. His conclusion: The German Army represents a powerful fighting force; while its spirit has grown worse, its discipline is undiminished.

* Plus an additional (and highly doubtful) 100 or so satellite divisions.

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