NO HALT IN WINTER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 September 1941, Page 6

NO HALT IN WINTER

ON THE EASTERN FRONT

SOVIET AMBASSADOR’S WARNING. LOSS OF RUSSIAN FACTORIES SERIOUS. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, 1 p.m.) LONDON, September 23. After referring to the German losses, M. Maisky (Soviet Ambassador) said: “Nevertheless the German war machine is still strong and Russia is facing a tense and difficult situation. The Russians have been forced to evacuate a number of factories and plants and some time must elapse before we are able to restart in new sites. Neither in the autumn nor the win-

ter will there be a standstill in the war on the Eastern front. “The Soviet has the right to expect the co-operation of other freedomloving countries." Dealing with the . Russian-German campaign, M. Maisky, who spoke at an American Chamber of Commerceluncheon, said: “The assertion of the German High Command i that i their losses to August 131 amounted to a little more than 400,000 men, including 6900 flyers and 725 aircraft, can only be considered as ridiculous. It is enough to look at their Hosses in the air war. Taking as an average of three airmen per machine, both bombers and fighters, on their own showing the losses of German planes should be 2,300, not 725, but even this does not fully expose the lies. According to a conservative estimate the actual losses, suffered by Germany consist of some 3,000,000 men .killed, wounded and missing. The number of German planes destroyed within the first three months of the war in the East amounts to something like 8,500. About onethird of the whole German Army is now hors-de-combat.”

M. Maisky, however, did not minimise the seriousness of the situation, due to the Russian losses, the occupation of important industrial districts and the necessary destruction of plant by the Russians themselves. Lord Nuffield said nothing more could be done to speed up the production of tanks than he and his colleagues at present were doing. Tanks were now being produced as planes were produced when they were a first requisite.