NAZI PROBLEMS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 September 1941, Page 5

NAZI PROBLEMS

CAMPAIGN IN RUSSIA EVERY DAY BRINGS SURPRISES. FRANK NEWSPAPER ARTICLE. I British Official Wireless.) RUGBY. September 10. Though every move by Dr Goebbels’ propaganda department in directing Press comment' in Germany is the result of careful planning, even if the motive is not immediately discernible, there seems to be a surprising frankness in an article in the prominent Nazi newspaper “Voelkischer Beobachter” on the difficult Russian campaign. It refers to the importance of giving the people on the home front a real understanding of the problems, and says:— “Every day brings new surprises, and the' people at home must not expect a quick ending to the Russian campaign. No one must compaxe it with the successes of our troops in the west, north or south, since in these campaigns our men fought . undex European conditions, while in the east everything is so fundamentally different that it seems as if we were fighting on an unknown planet. “The fighting is completely different from all the experiences of the German soldiers on the other war front's. The Red soldiers and their officers never react normally, and they continue fighting even in hopeless positions. Every moment in battle unexpected developments must be faced. “The German soldiers have learned through the cruelty of the Red soldiers, their brutal discipline and their apparently unending quantities of war material why Herr Hitler has forced them to fight Russia, as otherwise this immense danger would one day have threatened the homes, wives and children of our soldiers within the German borders. The bitterness of the battle on the Eastern Front will finally convince our troops of the necessity for this war to remove the Russian peril. “Another difficulty in the eastern war arises from the indescribably bad roads and lines of communication. A high officer of the German African Corps, who has just arrived at the headquarters of a tank division, stated that the general ground conditions in the Libyan Desert for tanks and infantry are a paradise compared with the Eastern Front. “The home front must understand the fury that is provoked in our troops when people at home suggest that their advance in the east is slow.”

UKRAINE HARVEST NO FARM TRACTORS AVAILABLE. CROPS LARGELY USELESS. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, September 10. The Ukrainian harvest, according to the Berlin correspondent of the Stockholm “Tidningen,” has not been destroyed by the Russians, but there is nobody to do the harvesting. Fifty thousand tractors are needed for the harvest, but they are not available as the Red Army requisitioned the collective farm tractors. The few tractors available need repair, but there are no repair facilities. The Germans leave a few soldiers on each farm to see that the harvest is cut with scythes, which are often the only means available, but the bulk of the harvest will be lost, this correspondent says.