GRAVE CRISIS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 December 1941, Page 5

GRAVE CRISIS

FACED IN GERMANY HITLER DARE NOT DISCLOSE LOSSES. SOVIET BUREAU GIVES FACTS. (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) NEW YORK, December 15. Germany appears to be facing an internal crisis of extreme gravity, declares the “New York Times” correspondent at Stockholm. Reports reaching Sweden, he says, refer to a conference between Herr Hitler and his gauleiters in which it was revealed that the morale of the masses was extremely unsatisfactory. Hitler is reported to have been informed that it would be difficult to avoid a dangerous wave of defeatism as a result of the failure to capture Moscow. An Istanbul message states that 8000 frost-bitten Germans from Russia are at present in Bulgaria and Greece. It is believed they are not allowed to return to the Reich in view of the effect they might have on German morale. In five months of fighting on the Eastern Front the Germans lost a whole generation of about 6,000,000 killed, wounded and taken prisoner, and also 19,000 guns, 15,000 tanks and 13,000 planes, says the Soviet Information Bureau in a statement refuting Hitler’S figures Cf December 11. Actually, it says, the Russian losses in missing amounted to 520,000, including the war prisoners. The statement adds that Gorman losses are so immense that Hitler dare not inform the German people of them. The Moscow radio stated that 20 villages in the Donetz area were recaptured in the past two days. The Russians in the Leningrad area in the past 24 hours have recaptured 52 villages and towns, and the Russians who recaptured Tikhvin have linked up with the Russian right flank on the Moscow front.