Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1941. GERMANY’S EASTERN FRONT.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 October 1941, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1941. GERMANY’S EASTERN FRONT.

ACCORDING to the Nazis, their offensive against Russia is proceeding according to plan. Nothing is more certain, however, than that if Hitler and his accomplices had been free to develop an unchanged war plan the German armies and the Luftwaffe today would have been striking west, against Britain, instead of east against Russia. It is assuredly not as a matter of deliberate -choice that virtually the whole weight of the German war machine is at present being directed against the Soviet armies on the Eastern front. The original hope of the Nazi gang was that it would be possible to overwhelm and defeat Britain, and -then to deal with Russia at leisure. It is under a change of plan, enforced by their failure to invade Britain, that they are now endeavouring to disable Russia before Britain’s rising offensive power involves them in the full rigours of a war on two fronts.

On the scale it has now assumed and with the fate of Moscow and that of other vital areas trembling in the balance, the enemy offensive on the Eastern front nevertheless constitutes a very serious threat, not only to the Soviet Union, but to all the Allied nations and to the United States. Nothing is clearer than that the cause in which the Russians are fighting so valiantly on the approaches to Moscow and on other battlefields is not their own only, but that of all free nations.

Whether there are prospects of stemming the German onslaught short of Moscow,' on the confines of the Donetz basin and on the approaches to the Caucasus around the Sea of Azov has yet to appear. There does not seem to be the slightest prospect of a Russian collapse whether the enemy succeeds or fails in reaching Moscow and other objectives. What is very definitely at stake as matters stand, however, is the magnitude and power of the continuing war effort of the Soviet Union. With some already lost, areas now in visible jeopardy constitute a very large 'part of Russia’s war industrial territory. Making the fullest allowance for the unstinted material help Britain and the United States are pledged to give, the loss of the Donetz basin and the Caucasian oilfields would entail a heavy reduction in Russia’s effective fighting strength.

Apart from any. thought of a Russian collapse, it is thus obvious that issues of great magnitude are raised in the terrible battles now raging on the Eastern front. Account has to be taken of the tremendous price in lives and material Germany is paying for gains of uncertain ultimate value and also of the extent to which, the growing insecurity of the Nazi grip on occupied Europe prompts a savage and reckless effort for victory. The possibility that Germany may be able, at a price, seriously to weaken and handicap Russia evidently, however, is not to be overlooked. •

With affairs in this critical state on the Eastern front it is natural that demands should be raised for action by Britain’ on a much greater scale than has yet been attempted in support of her hard-pressed ally. The universal desire in all British lands undoubtedly will be that every practicable and advantageous measure of help that can be given to Russia, whether by attack on the enemy or in the field of supply, should be given. As to the limits within which action is practicable, however, we can do nothing else than trust, our statesmen and military leaders.

Air Churchill’s reference, a little over a week ago, to suggestions that more should be done to help Russia was in effect a refusal to be drawn. To an ironical observation that ideas in this category had occurred several times to the men responsible for the conduct of the war, he added a refusal to say anything that would either inform or encourage the enemy.

What further action Britain may take, in the Middle East or elsewhere, to assist Russia thus remains, as it most certainly should remain until the moment for action arrives, veiled in secrecy. Reports that are current on this subject obviously are of' uncertain value. They include what appears to be a suggestion that British forces will co-operate in the defence of the Caucasian oilfields, and a statement that Britain has replied to a request by M. Stalin for an immediate military diversion on the Western front that she is unable as yet to provide a sufficiently large and equipped expeditionary force for that purpose. Much as action in aid of Russia is to be desired, premature and ill-prepared action would be worse than useless. The event may prove that orderly and methodical plans for the ultimate defeat and extirpation of Nazism make it necessary, as the British First Lord of the Admiralty, Mr Alexander, has suggested, that Russia for the time being should hold out largely by her own efforts, as Britain did sixteen months ago. Tn spite of the gravely critical outlook on the Eastern front it cannot be taken for granted that any and every suggested attempt to assist Russia and hasten the day of victory must be justified.