THE WINTER IN RUSSIA.

Marlborough Express, Volume LXXVI, Issue 247, 20 October 1942, Page 4

THE WINTER IN RUSSIA.

With the intensification of the German assault, Stalingrad is more critically beset than ever. Russian resoluteness will b° tried to the utmost in the interval preceding the relief that is expected to be brought by the onset of winter. "Hitler must take Stalingrad within three weeks or not at all," states the Stockholm - correspondent of the London Daily Telegraph. " Sleet storms and icy winds are already sweeping the steppes hetween the Don and the Volga, and supplies are becoming more and more a problem for the German High Command." Early in November full-scale operations in the Stalingrad area will be prevented by the encroaching winter. Already onj the northern sectors of the Russian front the movement of men and machines is being impeded by heavy rains, which will be followed by snow. It was, though, emphasised recently, in a London report on winter 's effect on the various Russian positions, that the general advantage will not be necessarily with the Red armies. The Nazis will be well prepared this winter for the severe conditions, and as Stalingrad is not subject to heavy snowfall operations may continue on the Lower Volga, though in intense cold. The cessation of mechanised warfare farther north may, indeed, enable the Germans to release armour and aircraft for use in the south, or passibly in the Middle East. The main German drive into the Caucasian area appears. to be directed south-east from the captu^ed Maikop oilfields to Grozny, and thenco' to the Caspian coastal plain, which. proides access to Baku. And so long as the Germans can avoid the mountains their campaign in the Caucasus can be continued through the winter months. These are considerations that emphasise "the continuing difficulties which still fa.ce the Russians. Though Germany has been defeated in her original plans for the summer campaign, as von Bock's disappearance from the scene of his equivocal successes testifies, activity will not cease with the winter. It is upon themselves, as the Australian representatives of the Soviet News Agency recently declared in Sydney, not upon the wieather, the Russia and the Allies will have to rely in the coming months. It can scarcely be doubted, however, that the winter season will help the Russians to stay the enemy. If the Germans continue their advanee it will be only slowly and painfully. Only a Russian collapse on a sensational scale could enable Hitler to achieve the objectives of his summer campaign. Germany 's wider war outlook is deteriorating with every day that the Russian resistance is maintained everywhere on the great front from the Caucasus to the Arctic. On all the widely-separated fronts there is, so far, no evidence of any preparations for a withdrawal to a strictly defensive line beyond the Volga and up to Archangel. Such a faliing-back would involve largescale readjustments in the Moscow and Leningrad sectors, hut- the Soviet forces have been attacking in those zones instead of contemplating withdrawal. If it be true that the Germans are preparing to dig in for the winter on the Stalingrad front such a decision would only be in accord with the military situation notwithstanding the threat to the Caucasus and the peril of Stalingrad. _V