FORCES OF MILLIONS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 June 1941, Page 5

FORCES OF MILLIONS

LOCKED IN HARD & BITTER CONFLICT HEAVY RUSSIAN ATTACKS ON INVADERS. FAMILIAR NAZI TACTICS. LONDON, June 25. Three million troops—l,ooo,ooo to 1,200,000 Germans and 1,600,000 to 2,000,000 Russians—are now locked in hard, bitter fighting over the thousand-mile eastern battle lines. The Russians are not fighting defensively, but are attacking the Germans, and they are employing similar tactics to those of the invaders. In view of the official reticence on .-’both sides no clear indication is avail- • able of where the flux of battle has carried the opposing armies. Axis reports specifically mention Russian offensive tactics in Bukovina and Poland, which conform with the past Russian pronouncements that the Red Army would fight an enemy on his own territory. On the other hand, there is considerable evidence that the Russians are effecting substantial withdrawals, particularly in Lithuania and northern Poland, where, according to German reports, they have burnt out the towns and villages and destroyed supplies. Extremely heavy fighting is raging north-east of Brest-Litovsk, where, the German High Command states, the Russians have four armies, including 49 infantry divisions, three tank divisions, 12 armoured brigades and seven cavalry divisions, with 2000 planes based on airfields north of the Pripet marshes. A reasonable assessment of the situation suggests that the Germans have driven in the north up to Siauliai in northern Lithuania and perhaps also to Kaunas. These, like the other thrusts, are probably promontories, not necessarily consolidated or widely based. It' is the old principle of the ' Battle of France —making a breach, rushing and driving in, fanning out and, lastly, consolidating the widening breach.