THE BALKANS: Game’s End

As the Russians crossed the Prut and the Germans rumbled over the level Hungarian plain and through the Transylvanian Alps to stop them, one political fact stood out: the long Allied finagle to talk the Balkans out of the war had failed.

Last week the Germans pointedly announced that Rumania’s docile Marshal Ion Antonescu and his younger, tougher namesake, Vice-Premier Mihai Antonescu (no kin), had made the pilgrimage to Hitler, that Bulgaria’s three regents had followed in their path. The week before, the Antonescus had still been trying to whisper in Allied ears that they only wanted an opportunity to show their hidden love of liberty.

Henceforth, the little satellites, willing and unwilling, were in the fight until the end.