RUSSIANS PLAN OFFENSIVE

Southland Times, Issue 24890, 2 November 1942, Page 5

RUSSIANS PLAN OFFENSIVE

AID FOR ALLIES WHEN THEY LAND (Rec. 8.40 p.m.) MOSCOW, Oct. 31. The Red Army will launch a coun-ter-offensive when the Allies strike in the west. This was a hint given by M. Alexandrov, a Communist Party executive member, in an article in the newspaper Pravda. “Powerful reserves which will then be thrown in against the Germans will assist the Allied forces to consolidate their hold on the continent,” he said. M. Alexandrov said the Stalingrad fighting was significant because it was causing severe casualties to the Germans and was also completely dislocating the Germans’ 1942 strategic plan. Hitler is planning a winter campaign in the Caucasus with twin drives against Batum and Baku, designed to break through towards Teheran, Kirkuk and Mosul, according to information received by The New York Times Instanbul correspondent, Ray Brock, from a neutral observer who has just arrived from Germany, states a New’ York message. The German armies on the Eastern Front are facing a serious shortage of oil and petrol, which has not been relieved in spite of the reassembling of dismantled refineries transported from Western Europe and the utilization of the Maikop and Krasnodar oilfields. The Germans have abandoned the almost hopeless programme of driving over the Caucasus Range and will concentrate on campaigns on the Black Sea and Caspian coasts. The time set for a break-through into the Middle East is reported to be New Year’s Day. NEW FRONTDISCUSSED Thrust In Italy Advocated NEW YORK, October 31. The Associated Press of America reports on reliable authority that Lieu-tenant-General Dwight D. Eisenhower, United States commander of land operations in the European theatre of war, is returning to Washington within a week for important consultations. This has revived second front speculation.

The military correspondent of the New York newspaper P.M. says that an Allied thrust in southern Europe would serve the same purpose as an invasion from the west. Its diversion value to Russia would be identical. Despite the fact that superficially it is harder to cross the Mediterranean than to span the Channel many military authorities are convinced that in reality it would be less difficult because Italy’s coastline is virtually undefended and Italy is ripe for revolution and invasion. On the other hand, the strongest defence lines in the world have been built by the Nazis along the . western coastline of Europe. The possibility of such an ambitious undertaking rests entirely on the outcome of the campaign against Field-Marshal Erwin Rommel. The complete destruction of Field-Marshal Rommel’s army and hard and fast control of the entire South Mediterranean are obviously imperative preliminary accomplishments.

TYRE MANUFACTURE FORD PLANT FOR RUSSIA (Rec. 6.30 p.m.) WASHINGTON, October 31. The Government has purchased the Ford Motor Company’s tyre manufacturing plant for shipment to Russia. The plant is capable of producing more than 1,000,000 tyres a year.