Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, JULY 16, 1942 A PICTURE INCOMPLETE.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 July 1942, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, JULY 16, 1942 A PICTURE INCOMPLETE.

A number of recent messages from Russia—amongst them some of the latest received—have emphasised, no doubt with full justification, the gravity of the position reached, not only at Voronezh and other points at which the Germans, at enormous cost, have forced the passage of the Don, but on the whole southern front on which the Soviet armies are withstanding the enemy attempt to drive to the Volga, the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus. The worst feature of the situation as it stands is that the Germans have been able at a number of vital points to assemble a local superiority of striking force and to make advances which threaten to open the way to greater gains. On the other hand there has not been even a remote approach to the conditions in which the invaders were able, in the opening months of their treacherous attack on Russia last year, to bear down opposition and conquer rapidly wide tracts of territory. The Germans are striking with tremendous power, and it is suggested that their attack on the line of the Don is intended not only to clear and safeguard their flank for a thrust into the Caucasus, but to cut the supply lines of the Russian central and northern armies. It is with matters in this state that the chief of the Soviet Information Bureau, M. Lozovsky, speaking no doubt with full authority, has declared his confidence in the fourth round of the conflict, of vhich the third round is now being fought, the Germans will get a knock-out blow. Against the grim facts of the struggle now extending south from the line of the Don to the Sea of Azov there are other facts to be set. One of these is that at the peak of its strength last year, the German war machine failed to overwhelm Russia and that in the later days of last summer and the months, of winter and early spring that followed it suffered damaging though not decisive defeat. In May last, Stalin said on the subject of relative German and Russian strength:— Firstly, it is beyond doubt that . . . Fascist Germany and her army have become weaker than they were ten months ago. War brought to the German people grave disillusionments, the sacrifice of millions of human victims, starvation and impoverishment. . . Lastly it is beyond doubt that during the past period the Red Army has become better organised and stronger than it was at the beginning of the war. An immense amount of apparently dependable evidence supports these claims and it follows that it by no means is to be taken for granted that the Nazi gangsters will be permitted to pursue, according to plan, their scheme of a concentrated offensive on the Russian southern front, co-ordinated with aggressive operations in the Middle East, Taking account only of Russia, the possibility has to be considered that the Nazis instead may find, themselves involved in full-scale conflict along a great part of the Eastern front—conflict to which their resources are no longer equal. In addition, it has to be remembered that Britain and the United States are pledged to diversionary action in aid of Russia. Following on M. Molotov’s visit to Washington last month, it was announced, officially from the White House that one of the objectives on which agreement had been reached was:— The urgent tasks of creating a second front in Europe in 1942. In what conditions precisely this agreement is to be translated into action remains to be seen, but evidently the fact that the Germans are exercising a powerful iniative in their offensive in South Russia cannot yet be accepted as reflecting the total outlook in the war in Europe in this fateful year.