BLACK SEA BID

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 August 1941, Page 5

BLACK SEA BID

DRIVE TOWARDS ODESSA & NIKOLAEV $ ATTEMPT TO COERCE TURKEY POSSIBLE. RUSSIAN NAVAL STRENGTH. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY. August 14. Under the heading “Hitler’sBlack Sea Bid,” the “Daily Telegraph” reviews the Nazi drive toward Odessa and Nikolaev, and suggests that the Nazi General Staff may believe that, should these ports fall—a possibility which must be faced—“they can command several ways to victory. Both harbours, the "Daily Telegraph" points out. might be used to outflank the Russian front, capture the Crimea, and reach the oilfield of the Caucasus, or alternatively to strike across Turkey at Iraq and Iran." The British-Soviet declaration to Turkey, the "Telegraph" continues, has "created difficulties for these grandiose Nazi projects. The attempts to make Turkey subserve the Fuehrer’s megalomania have now been countered. She is not to be bullied into making her country a corridor for Nazi conquest. "However many legions Hitler’s marshals can deploy on the Black Sea shore,” it adds, “there are no ships to move them till some run the gauntlet to and through the Dardanelles, and there is no naval protection for them except what Mussolini has to lend. “Stories are told of great numbers of barges having been prepared atConstanta and of motor torpedo-boati having been brought down the Danube. Russia has a eet in being in.the; Black Sea, which is far more than capable of obliterating any naval force which Hitler could scrape together there.” i