POOR RESULTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 February 1942, Page 3

POOR RESULTS

FROM HITLER’S COMMAND PLANS FOR SPRING CAMPAIGN. EXPECTED TO OPEN IN MAY. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, February 3. The fact that it is now six weeks since Hitler assumed command of his. armies on the Eastern Front is noted by “The Times” this morning. The paper says nothing has yet happened to show the advantage of intuitive strategy over the more humdrum methods of the general staff. The Soviet forces are still pressing the invaders backward at about the same steady pace as before the revolution in command. “There are ample signs that the German leaders are planning with all their formidable efficiency for a spring campaign,” says “The Times.” “In March the height of winter will be already past. The great thaws in April might make a movement of the front in either direction all but impossible, and in May the conflict will probably be resumed in conditions similar to those under which the first great German eruption was achieved. “Production for the spring offensive is being screwed to its utmost output by the Germans, a'nd the ranks of civil employment are being combed yet more ruthlessly for reserves of fighting manpower. “After pressing back the Germans along the whole front during the past two months, the Russian forces are now entering territory which the enemy has had time to organise, and in which his men have been able to construct for themselves some protection against the weather. The ground that the Soviet troops will be placing immediately behind their advancing lines has been systematically ravaged by each side in turn. “As yet there is no sign of a German rout. The enemy’s withdrawal, however, is certainly not according to plan, the Russians having had to fight stubborn actions for every important position they have recovered. Most important are those which the enemy would use as advance bases for his spring offensive.” The most dangerous sector, “The Times” considered, would likely prove to be in the south. It was here that the Germans had most to hope for. It was here that spring would first appear, and here that the road to the oil of the Caucasus lay. Marshal Timoshenko’s drive into the Donetz Basin was thus particularly significant. Concluding, “The Times” says: “Our own part in these movements is not to sit back and applaud, for though Russian industry is moving back behind the armies into the reconquered terri-

tory, and production is steadily improving, the Soviet Government still reports the urgency of maintaining the supply of British tanks. No effort will be spared to ensure that it shall not fail.”