RUSSIAN TACTICS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 July 1941, Page 6

RUSSIAN TACTICS

Refusal to Accept Defeat METHODS THAT PUZZLE THE GERMANS (Received This Day, 1.30 p.m.) LONDON, July 21. The current Russian successes may be ascribed, according to a “Thn.es” correspondent on the German frontier,'to the Russians’ unorthodox methods of offering a most stubborn resistance long after, under all recognised standards, they should have accepted defeat. This makes the Germans uncertain when they may safely proceed. A favourite trick is to let the Panzers through, after which Russian armoured units emerge from concealment. The Germans, thus taken unawares, enter into two murderous fires, at point-blank range. Chaos follows, but the Russians recover more quickly because they are not surprised. The Germans admit that the Russians show an uncanny faculty for adapting themselves to any change in German tactics when they attack the German infantry, who have been led to believe the way is clear. Russian tanks and motorised forces frequently join up with the Germans at dusk, following on until the precise moment for firing on them from the rear—usually just as the Germans advance into an ambush. An independent French agency says the Germans require more troops to hold down the invaded territory, for which reason they have asked Italy to send an expeditionary corps of at least ten divisions, and asked the Rumanians to mobilise more men and materials. The Russians in Bessarabia have apparently completed a withdrawal on a substantial part of the Dniester front, but there is no evidence in support of the German claims that the Axis forces are pursuing defeated Russians. On the contrary, it appears that the Russians, where they have withdrawn on this front, have done so under sufficient rearguard actions.