MOSCOW READY FOR WINTER

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 16, 14 October 1942, Page 5

MOSCOW READY FOR WINTER

Defences Stronger RED ARMY IS BETTER FED THAN ENEMY (Received October 13, 9.10 p.m.) LONDON, October 12. The Mayor of Moscow made a statement to a correspondent today that the city is not taking chances, but is preparing for a possible German offensive. The defences are constantly being strengthened and the anti-aircraft defences increased.

The population in the last six months has increased by 400,000 to 3,200,000. “We are determined that the people shall get warmth and also the essential food, transport, electricity, gas, hospitals, baths, theatres, and cinemas,” he said.

Eighty thousand woodcutters were mobilized, 'chiefly women. They were doing wonderfully, but transport was the main problem. Moscow this winter would be warmer than last year. Though the Don Basin had been lost, the Moscow coal basin, which was recently recaptured from the Germans, was already producing up to 30 per cent, more than before the war. "We are well supplied with food, which is stored throughout the city to prevent undue loss in air raids,” the mayor added Two Army’s Menus. “The Times” ■ correspondent in Moscow reports that members of tlie Red Army get three hot meals daily, and the German soldiers get only one. The Germans, for breakfast, get bread, margarine, and tea or ersatz coffee. The Russians get. a basin of hot pea or rice soup. Tor dinner the Germans get hot potato soup and mashed potatoes. Tlie Russians get soup, meat or fish, and vegetables. For supper the Germans get the same as at breakfast. The Russians get porridge, peas, often herrings, and tea. The Russians seldom miss meals even in the heaviest engagements, and there are many inconspicuous heroes among the cooks and food-carriers. Junior commanders take their .turns at kitchen duty, where they see that the correct quantities of food are put into the cookers. Sanitary instructors attached to each subdivision are responsible for the quality. The rations contain adequate fats and vegetables. When fresh vegetables are not available vitamin preparations are added. These are sometimes made on the spot by specially treating sweet briar or pine needles. British and American lard, egg powder, and tinned meat are among the rations. The Red Army is fully supplied in spite of the loss of the Ukraine. Don, and Kuban grain. The German plunderers have had some luxurious feasts, but officers and non-commissioned officers mostly benefit, and their plundering is so thorough that the Germans following up do not find anything. Moscow radio says that the people’s Commissariat for the Tank Industry announced that more tanks were produced in tlie first 10 days of October than in any corresponding jieriod of the past few months. The fighting quality of the latest model super-heavy Voroshilov tank has been considerably increased as a result of the adoption of a number of suggestions from tankists of the Red Army. NEW GERMAN TANK (Received October 13, 9.20 p.m.) LONDON, October 13. Major General Koch, the German High Command’s armament chief, declared over Berlin radio that the new German tank will beat the General Grant and Voroshilov tanks. “We studied the Churchill tank at Dieppe, and our new type will beat it,” he said. “The German soldiers in 1943 will have better weapons ' than they have now.”