Wairarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, AUGUST 1, 1942. PROSPECTS IN RUSSIA.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 August 1942, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, AUGUST 1, 1942. PROSPECTS IN RUSSIA.

MUCH that is now happening in Southern Russia is, at a direct view sufficiently discouraging. Very recent repoits liau declared that German tanks and infantry arc streaming across the. Lower Lon at,a number of points, that the enemy has cut across the main railway linking the Caucasus with Stalingrad, that he is attacking the Kuban mainland opposite Kerch, and more to a similar effect. It may appear in these circumstances that Stalin’s order to the Soviet forces that every soldier and every officer must stand and fight to the death is of a more or less rhetorical character.

(There may seem, too, to be a lack of foundation for the hopeful opinion stated to be held in London that the Russians are usiim only a minimum of their forces and are holding resources for a counter-attack, and that with the help ot its Allies, Russia can fulfil Stalin’s prophecy that Hitler s power will be broken this year. The possibility no doubt exists, however, that the Germans may have undertaken a greater task than they can hope to carry through.

Whatever the relative losses in lives and material may have amounted to in the battles thus far fought, it is clear that Russia has suffered very heavy losses in other categories—amongst them great areas of ripening crops, rich coalfields and other industrial organisation and equipment. No doubt it is also true, however, that Germany thus far has paid a heavy price for inconclusive gains. On account of the resolution with which the Russians carry out the scorched earth policy,- much that they themselves lose does not mean any corresponding gain to the invaders. If Germany were able to break and disable the Russian armies and to gain control in whole or part of the oil resources of the Caucasus, her total efforts and sacrifices in her present offensive no doubt would be richly rewarded. If on the other hand, while she is still striving desperately for these results, she is heavily attacked. or counterattacked, her hopes of advantage may fade away disastrously.

The full possibilities the situation holds, in Russia, in Western Europe and elsewhere, can. only be determined by events. Account certainly has to be taken of the developing air offensive from Britain, in itself and in the attendant possibilities it opens up. At the same time, reports' from the Russian theatre are generally in agreement in stating that the Soviet forces, even where they are most heavily outnumbered, are nowhere being thrown into disorder or in apparent danger of having their organisation destroyed. Even enemy reports have spoken of the powerful .and determined resistance of the Russians, and it is clear that at some points, particularly in the Voronezh area, on the northern flank of the great Bon battlefront, the Russians have the upper hand, though perhaps not by a very wide margin.

If the Soviet Union in fact is holding great forces in reserve for a counter-offensive, the possibility exists of a rapid and remarkable transformation of the state of affairs meantime disclosed. There can be no doubt, in any case, about the desperate character of the gamble in which the Nazi dictatorship and its satellites are engaged. Unless they can build speedily and very considerably on the measure of success they meantime gained, their doom will be written plainly.