The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun TUESDAY, MAY 26, 1942. BEATING THE GERMANS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 122, 26 May 1942, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun TUESDAY, MAY 26, 1942. BEATING THE GERMANS

THE German armies are heavii.y engaged in Kussia. They have won an Initial success in driving the Soviet forces off the Kerch peninsula, but the exploitation of this success would seem to be dependent on their resistance to and reversal of the mighty offensive against Kharkov. In this offensive the Russians have made considerable gains, which the Germans are attempting to undermine by a flanking attack to the south. The outcome of the great battles Is still undecided, and may for long remain undecided, for both sides have made prodigiously great preparations for the spring campaign, which the Russians cannot afford to lose, but the (Jermans cannot afford not to win. Probably no man in the world to-day knows of a certainty the course this campaign will take, anr] certainly no foreign observer is in a position to say—as is being said — that the Russians' advance towards Kharkov "has completely upset the German plans for summer operations." This is wishful thinking at its worst, and it betrays again the persisting tendency to underestimate the ability of the German military command which has done the Allied cause great harm in this war. Coinciding with this foolish speculation concerning military prospects there is talk, surely no less foolish, about tho condition of the German home front. The German Minister of Agriculture, Darre, has resigned, and immediately we are told that he has been "dismissed" because of "the breakdown of the German food policy." Whether there has been a "breakdown" is made more than doubtful by the further statement. that Dane's successor is his subordinate, one Backe —"and consequently no real policy change can be expected." The notion that the Germans, having dismissed one Minister because of the failure of his administrative policy, would replace him with another to carry on the same policy, attains a high level of fatuousness. This report comes from Stockholm, where the Germans make a habit of planting rumours of the kind they think (not without Justification) that British people wish to believe. Another report, from Lisbon, also an unreliable source, has it that Kield-Marsh.il von Urauschitsch "is believed to have warned Hitler that Germany can afford to lose not more than 2,500,000 men, ■ nd that this limit may be reached by August." The chances of such a "warning," necessarily of the most highly confidential character, reaching Lisbon are not much greater than that a communication from General Auchinleck to Mr. Churchill should rcach Hokitika. It is hard to say why such cheap interpretations and such airy prophecies should he put out for the supposed benefit of the British people. The average man, particularly if he fought in the last war, knows well that the German Army is hard to beat, and that the German people are little Inferior to the British in their capacity to make sacrifices for war, and not inferior at all in their willingness to work for victory. He has noted also that, despite many prophecies in the past of the "crumbling" of the German home front, and tales of quarrels among the German leaders, nothing of substantial importance has happened. He sees that Hitler's leadership seems to be unchallenged, and that there have been remarkably few political changes in Germany, which suggests that the Nazi regime is stable. Observing these things, he feels that In this war, as in the last, the defeat of the Germans will not be even witfhln sight until the German armies have suffered a shattering defeat, so great that it cannot be concealed from the German people. It is barely possible that the Russians can bring this about, but it is more likely that the combined efforts of Russian, British and American forces will be needed, and the day for such efforts is not yet.