Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1942. RUSSIA STRIKES AGAIN.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 November 1942, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1942. RUSSIA STRIKES AGAIN.

$ A. PROMISING addition to the powerful and damaging blows struck by the United Nations against the Axis Powers in the last few weeks is made in a second offensive opened by the Russians on the front west of Moscow. At least good early progress has been made by the Soviet forces in operations directed to cutting railways serving an important part of the German front, amongst them a lateral line possession of which by the enemy facilitates the rapid transfer of men and material from one part of the front to another. At the sam'e time the Russians appear to be making good headway in working round Rzhev and Viazma, developed by the Germans as formidable bastions in their system of defences west of Moscow and further north.

Following on and supplementing the successful Soviet drives north-west and south-west of Stalingrad which now promise so much more than the relief of that city and the clearing of the system of communications to which it is the key, the latest offensive gives new grounds for believing that in spite of the tremendous strain imposed upon them during ' the summer and autumn, in the Don-Volga region and the Caucasus, the Russians have been able to build up reserves which' may enable them to surpass greatly their achievements of last winter. From the Russian standpoint and that of the Allies in general, the prospects thus opened of course are much brightened by the increasing demands already being made on enemy resources in North Africa and the Mediterranean and the likelihood that these demands will be intensified heavily in the near future.

A good deal of emphasis is rightly being laid on the formidable nature of the tasks by which the Allied armies and other fighting forces in various war theatres are faced, but from the German standpoint the outlook visibly is tending to become quite hopeless. .It is probably true, as has been stated of late, that Hitler and his camarilla know they have lost the war, but dare not admit as much to the German people. These gangsters must be expected to risk and to attempt everything that desperation can suggest, but their situation holds the possibility also of sudden and overwhelming disaster and collapse. ’ Events in Russia of course must be considered in their relationship to those that are already taking shape or are destined to take shape in other war areas, but at the stage meantime reached, evidence of the tremendous reversal of German military fortunes is nowhere more impressive or convincing than on the Eastern front. Although during the summer they extended considerably their invasion of Russian territory, the Axis armies failed to attain.any of their principal objectives. Thanks to the heroic- and memorable defence of Stalingrad, they were prevented not only from mastering that city and the Volga communications, but from driving om to Astrakhan, on the Caspian—an advance which would have undermined seriously the whole Soviet system of -military communications and supply. In the Caucasus, too, narrow limits were set to the enemy gains. One oilfield, north of the mountains—Maikop—is in their hands, but according to very recent reports they have not yet obtained any supplies from it. In spite, too, of their capture of the Crimea and Novorossisk, they have not been able to break Soviet naval supremacy in the Black Sea. / It is more than ever clear that Germany, as Mr Churchill said not long ago, is bleeding to death in Russia. Her second and tremendously costly attempt to overwhelm and disable the Soviet armies has ended in dismal failure. Even the hope of being able to establish in Russia a securely fortified front which could be held in comparatively light force has vanished. In conjunction with what is happening and is in prospect elsewhere, the state of affairs developing on the Russian front is well icalculated to spread despair and demoralisation throughout the forces of Germany and her' satellites.