“CRUCIAL MOMENT” FOR ALLIES

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 98, 20 January 1943, Page 5

“CRUCIAL MOMENT” FOR ALLIES

Russian Opportunities

LONDON, January 18.

“The crucial moment,” is how the “Daily Mail’s” military correspondent, Captain Liddell Hart, refers to the general war situation. He says the successive extensions and alterations . or the Russian pressure should multiply the strain upon the Germans, achieving more than the depth of any advance. Captain Liddell Hart urges that the United Nations should create more distractions and thus give the Red Army a greater chance to exploit its opporThe "Daily Telegraph s” mihtary commentator says that the new Russian offensives almost indicate that Stalin is attempting to secure a decision in tne. field this winter. The commentator, however. warns the public against under' estimating the effect of the African diversion. He says that ai though the threat on the Mediterratnean front is temporarily inactive, the diversion has come at a time when Hitlers preoccupations in Russia have reached 1111 increasingly critical stage. "Mighty Soviet Finn.” 'The Red Army drives in southern Russia are part of a mighty plan to destiny the German war machine, says the military correspondent of the "Daily Ex* press,” Morley Richards, who is particularly well-informed on Russian moves. He adds that the weight of the Russian blows north of Rostov proves them to be no diversionary attacks. The advance which carried the Red armies across the Donetz River has developed into an avalanche. It is of such magnitude that the Germans probably have decided to retire altogether beyond the Donetz. 'l’he correspondent suggests these l ,os ' sibililies in the Russian drive to Rostov : The Red Army pincers coming from north and «ast along the lower Don may meet east of Rostov. The Germans who manage to reach Rostov will not be safe because of the Russians getting astride their communications leading to the rear of the city. The trapping of a large part of the German armies in the Caucasus now seems certain. The capture of Millerovo is the crowning triumph of the northern Donetz offensive. The most important strategical gain since the capture of Kotelnikovo. it means that two claws of the pincer movement designed to encircle the Germans in southern Russia now have few obstacles before them.