GENERAL ZHUKOV

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 November 1941, Page 6

GENERAL ZHUKOV

A PRACTICAL SOLDIER. NOT AWED BY GERMANS. General Zhukov, who has • taken over the Russian central front from Marshal Timoshenko, who has been transferred to the south, is one of the Soviet’s best practical soldiers, says the military correspondent of the Sydney “Morning Herald.” Although he is only 41 years of age, he has had considerable field experience in Siberia, in Finland, and in the present war. Trained as a tank expert, he is an authority on tactics, and played a leading part in evolving the zonal system to which Russia turned when fixed positional fortifications were deemed to be obsolete. He was actually in charge of operations when this system was introduced into the Ukraine, for he was the first commander of the Ukraine Special District. Opposed to Politics. Four months before the present war broke out he became Chief of Staff of the Red Army and a vice-Commissar. for Defence, under the leadership of Marshal Timoshenko, of whom he has always been a protege. The general belief at this time was that Timoshenko would look after the general direction and the political interests of the army, while Zhukov, who had always loathed politics, would be the; operational leader of the army in the field. Zhukov’s fanatical belief that military commanders should have a free hand in the task allotted them will probably serve him in good stead in his new command, for he will subordinate everything in the besieged city of Moscow to the needs of defence. He incurred much criticism for his opposition to the interference of the political chiefs of the Leningrad district in the conduct of the first stages of the Russo-Finnish war of 1939-40, and it may be assumed that he will not allow this to recur in Moscow. In desiring the complete regimentation of the nation in “a total fighting unit,” Zhukov has been described as “more German than the Germans,” and this phrase also describes his tactical beliefs. “Ruthless in Methods.” Taking a stand against the undue awe accorded to Germany military methods during the Tukachevsky regime, Zhukov insisted that Russia’s cue was to borrow from the German book, but to go even further than the Germans in certain directions. . He saw to it, for example, that Russian tanks were heavier than those of the Germans, in both armour and firepower, and he gave a new meaning to the term “tank trap,” maintaining that depth defences could be so devised as to ambush and neutralise the enemy’s tank formations. Zhukov, who has always been a 'professional soldier,, is reported to be utterly ruthless in his methods, and describes modern warfare as the exploitation of fanatical morale by all the devices of modern military science. If Moscow is to be held at all it will be by a well-trained and calculating leader of this kind, and if his main task should turn out to be a delaying action, Zhukov will give the “scorched earth” policy an interpretation not hitherto grasped even in Soviet Rus-1 sia,