South Yorkshire Times – Saturday 17 July 1943

Well Begun

The Second Front, about which so much has been said and written, particularly since Mr. Churchill expressed the opinion that the Allies had reached the “end of the beginning,” is now a fact indeed. It has begun a good deal more auspiciously than the most sanguine of us could have hoped, but it behoves us to watch the enterprise with cautious and intelligent interest before throwing our caps in the air. The term Second Front is, of course, a misnomer. The United Nations themselves have for a long time had many more than two fronts on their hands, and the Axis have had to give a lot of attention for a long and exhausting period to a very active second front in North Africa.

However, we are now launched on the all-important task of breaking into the “impregnable” position in which the Germans and Italians thought to have established themselves in Europe, and the business goes encouragingly well. The performance of our troops in North Africa wonderfully buoyed up the confidence of the Democratic nations, and the way they have jumped the Axis defences in Sicily fully bears out the good opinion that these men had previously earned. In scope and conception the invasion is by far the vastest military adventure which has ever been undertaken and it is immensely cheering to note the thoroughness with which plans had evidently been laid and the efficiency with which they were carried out.

In war Democracy has generally come through on the right side because of staying power, rather than brilliance in the martial art, but this time very little seems to have been overlooked and a most difficult amphibious undertaking has been carried through with a smooth efficiency which is rarely achieved even in manoeuvres, In spite of the fore-knowledge of this blow which the Axis and the Italians in particular persistently professed they appear to have been caught napping in the final event. The landings from the sea, rendered additionally hazardous by awkward weather conditions, were opposed with nothing like the tenacity that had been expected. Airborne troops undoubtedly deserve a good deal of credit for this, for they bore the brunt of the first shock of the assault, landing well ahead of the main invading force. All the same, the disposition of the Axis forces seems to have been governed by no well-founded knowledge of an attack which they must have been expecting at any moment for the last month. The speed with which our men drove inland and fanned out along the coastal plain from the beaches bettered the best Nazi blitzkrieg model and already many valuable, possibly vital, objectives have been swiftly seized.

The naval arm has never more solidly justified itself, and the battle fleets not only did a remarkable job in shepherding this great Armada to its landing points, but also backed up the troops during the highly vulnerable period of disembarkation. And still the admirals bear prime responsibility for the success or failure of the expedition, They must keep open the lines of supply at whatever cost now the die has been cast. And while the democratic peoples watch with new hope the progress of the assault which they have lived, worked and denied themselves for through long months.

Germany sees her armies locked in a deadly grapple to the East, the threat from across the English Channel and a grim shadow over the Balkans. If it is still premature for us to rejoice unduly, it seems none too early for the enemy to bethink themselves of the promised reckoning.