Russia Only a “Secondary Front”

Manawatu Times, Volume 69, Issue 55, 8 March 1944, Page 5

Russia Only a “Secondary Front”

MUST DRIVE ALLIES INTO SEA FIRST! Received Tuesday, 10.30 p.m. LONDON, March 7. Berlin commentators, apparently -realising that von Mannstein is in no position to make an effective countermove, have begun giving unusually gratuitous information why the German front in Russia does not hold, says the Tunes’ Stockholm correspondent. The commentators say that the German Command now considers that the Russian front is only secondary, though still very important. The greatest struggle in Germany’s fight for life is coming from the west, therefore the troops in Russia have been greatly depleted while huge forces apparently idle fill all parts of the homeland and the adjacent territories. The spokesmen add that the war has “got stuck” and can receive new direction only by a tremendous effort which Germany’s enemies will un doubtedly make in the west. The Ger man troops in the west will be subjected to tests exceeding anything ex perienced in Russia. Meanwhile a few picked and experienced German troops hold the Russian front. They do not expect to hold their ground everywhere against the Russian masses of troops and material, but even if the Russians reach the frontiers of Germany this will not decide the war because the German Command knows that once the Allied western invaders are driven into the sea it will be possible to cope with the eastern enemy with the whole weight of Germany’s might. The correspondent adds: “This is the first time the Germans have so openly referred to the possibility of their army being flung back to the German frontier.”