GIANT OFFENSIVE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 October 1941, Page 5

GIANT OFFENSIVE

REPORTED GERMAN PREPARATIONS i BID FOR SWEEPING SUCCESS BEFORE WINTER. i ATTEMPT TO PARALYSE RUSSIA. LONDON, October 2. It is widely believed that the j German High Command, by withholding front-line news, aims to conceal to the utmost preparations for a new and giant-scale offensive with the object of inflicting a paralysing defeat on the whole of the < Russian Army before winter. | “The Times” correspondent on the German frontier says there are indications that the Germans are preparing to make a great wedge of'drives toward the Volga and Caucasus, hoping for a quick success to furnish a base from which to execute a direct campaign against the oilfields at Baku, after which they would cut the chief British-American supply line to Russia. If, while doing this, the Germans could capture Leningrad they would be able to pour in from the Baltic new armies to advance eastward, forming with the drive on the southern front a vast pincer movement converging on Moscow. LENINGRAD VITAL. Marshal Timoshenko is making an effort to prevent this and is maintaining an unceasing offensive on the central front, forcing the Germans to relax their pressure on Leningrad, which has acquired more vital strategical importance since the fall of Kiev and the loss of the eastern Ukraine. This accounts for the grim, unyielding tenacity of the defence of Leningrad. The Stockholm correspondent of “The Times” says there are indications that the new offensive against Moscow will be on the largest possible scale not only from the southeast but also from the west and southwest. The preparations for this offensive have been long in hand, but it was intended to continue them till the German commander on the Leningrad front was able to co-operate. FieldMarshal von Leeb, however, at the moment appears to be baulked and confused. He seems to be fumbling to prevent the initiative from definitely passing to Marshal Voroshilov’s troops inside the Leningrad area and along the Vaildai Hills toward Velikiye-Luki. Much depends on which sort of hamSerhead von Leeb is able to concenate for the new blow, which he dare not delay long because a prolonged standstill would inevitably be converted into a disastrous defeat. UNIVERSAL TRAINING VAST SCHEME LAUNCHED IN RUSSIA. LONDON, October 2. Russia today began the universal training of all men between the ages of 16 and 50, who will do 110 hours’ training in the next five months. NAZI COLONISERS PLANS IN OCCUPIED AREAS. LONDON, October 3. The Stockholm correspondent of “The Times” quotes reports from Berlin that large-scale preparations are being made for colonising the captured parts of Russia, where it is intended to transport complete German communities and to arrange colonies somewhat resembling those that are now developing in Poland. Numerous organisers and administrative officials have already been selected and are undergoing special courses of training.