VITAL ISSUES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 May 1942, Page 4

VITAL ISSUES

HANGING IN THE BALANCE ON THE KHARKOV FRONT OPINION AND CONJECTURE IN LONDON. SOVIET VICTORY OR NAZI DRIVE TO CAUCASUS. (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.30 p.m.) LONDON, May 25. Military commentators in London, summing up the position as the Battle of the Ukraine enters on its third week, express the opinion that one of the war’s most important strategical victories hangs in the balance. If the German flank ■attack on Isyum is beaten off, the Red Army will be in a position to sweep on to the Dnieper. If the German attack succeeds, Marshal Timoshenko’s forces will have to fall back a considerable distance from Kharkov and the Germans are likely immediately to drive to the Caucasus. Captain Liddell Hart warns against exaggerated optimism, pointing out that Soviet communiques have not claimed major successes. He suggests two explanations of what is happening on the Kharkov front, firstly that the Russians may be feeling their way and only driving hard where the going is good; secondly, that Marshal Timoshenko’s offensive may have been a big effort which fell short of its objective and is now meeting with a definite repulse. Captain Liddell Hart accepts the second explanation and deduces that, even if the Red Army had been halted, it would have entailed a lavish use of German reserves and the upsetting of offensive plans. I On the other hand, the military correspondent of the “Daily Express” says that Marshal Timoshenko, at his present rate of progress, will completely isolate Kharkov within a week. “The present Russian thrust,” he says, “may disintegrate German concentrations which have been preparing to move towards Rostov and thence to the Caucasus. Marshal'Timoshenko is reported to have been troubled by the heavy German attack on the Isyum-Baren-kova front, but it is well known he anticipated this Nazi move and was well prepared to meet it. At the moment he is concentrating on wide, outflanking thrusts around Kharkov, to cut off its communications and supplies.”

OFFENSIVE PLANS SOME UNCONVINCING NAZI CLAIMS. THE ENCIRCLEMENT STORY. (Received This Day, 1.0 p.m.) LONDON, May 25. The Russians announce that their resumed offensive operations in the Kharkov region continued throughout the night. The Germans announce that operations proceeded according to plan. Neither gives many details, but “The Times” Stockholm correspon- ■ dent says the total information -shows that the Kharkov battle is ' entering, or has already entered, on a most interesting stage. It is clear, says the correspondent, that if the developments of the past week are according to plan, they are not according to the German plan. . It is Marshal Timoshenko’s battle, which the Germans did not plan and did not want. Anything less than a crushing German victory, which is now most unlikely, would be a serious German setback, delaying the summer offensive to the Caucasus for weeks, probably for months. A Russian victory would be a German disaster, so large has been the scale of this prolonged battle and so numerous are the German material and forces diverted from the southern Donetz region, where the Germans already were half prepared for a drive eastwards. The Germans at the beginning repeatedly declared that their summer' plans were not affected by the Kharkov battle, but recently they have ceased to emphasise this theme. The Vichy radio, quoting a report from Berlin, estimates that 400.000 Russians are encircled southward of Kharkov. A Berlin spokesman refers vaguely to Russians enveloped and isolated south of Kharkov, but according to the Russians no large Russian forces are seriously menaced except in the Losovaya salient, which would be enveloped if von Bock managed to drive home a wedge to Isyum. The Russians admit that von Bock at first managed to drive rather a deep wedge into the Russians’ positions. Repeated assaults carried his foremost tanks perilously near to the river, but Russian anti-tank weapons and ordinary artillery destroyed the intruders and pressed the wedge outwards. It is not clear whether the original Russian positions were entirely restored. The Russians refer to the Barenkova-Isyum sector as the scene of further heavy German attacks, showing that von Bock has not abandoned his purpose, despite the fact that this area is already the graveyard of hundreds of German tanks.