World Battlefronts: BATTLE OF GERMANY: Fight or Fizzle?

In his report to the nation last week President Roosevelt emphasized the existence not only of strategic integration but of tactical, day-by-day coordination between the western Allies and the Red armies. Britain, the U.S. and Russia are fighting on opposite fringes of one great battleground, and they are fighting one great battle.

Barring a sudden internal collapse of the Reich, it has long been apparent that the last great battle of Germany would be fought between the Oder and the Rhine (TIME, Aug. 28). Last week U.S. troops moved up to the Rhine north of Cologne. Marshal Zhukov had been...