Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1942. ANOTHER SHOCK FOR HITLER.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 December 1942, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1942. ANOTHER SHOCK FOR HITLER.

]\ T EW ami impressive evidence that the Russians have immense reserves of fighting power to draw upon in the conduct 01. their winter offensive appears in the opening of large-scale attacks in which the German defences have been breached and deeply penetrated south of Voronezh. Particulars given today of the losses inflicted on the enemy and of captures, which include many prisoners and large quantities of war material, speak for themselves of the vigour and success with which these latest onslaughts are being developed.

Apart from Hitler’s boastful declaration that Stalingrad would be taken, Allied authorities of standing were admitting, less than two months ago, that the fate ol that heroically defended city remained an open question. Since then, however, the position and outlook have been transformed in a mannei that is profoundly significant, as it bears on the fate, not only of the gigantic struggle in Eastern Europe, but of the Avar as a. whole.

With their summer offensive in full swing, Hie Germans entertained hopes of cutting across the. Volga, communications and of occupying Moscow in the north and the Caucasus in the 'south. They met their first great check in. their failure, in spite of repeated and costly efforts, to capture the.pivot Lown of Voronezh, approximately midway between Stalingrad and Moscow. The ever-memorable defence of Stalingrad decisively smashed the enemy hopes and they have since suffered a series of defeats which threaten more and more obviously to work out, from the Axis standpoint, in disaster.

As a result of Soviet counterstrokes, brilliantly planned and executed, a German army of a strength estimated recently (making allowance for the heavy losses it has suffered) at 200,000 men, is enveloped and trapped west of Stalingrad and all efforts to break through to its relief have thus far been defeated heavily. In the Caucasus the Germans were thrown back with slaughter, notably in their efforts to reach the Grozny oilfields and on the approaches to the military highways running south through the great mountain chain. In addition, the Russians have penetrated deeply into the immensely powerful field fortifications covering the- enemy base of Smolensk and adjacent areas west of Moscow'. In the formidable attacks now launched by the Russians south of Voronezh, there is not only an. additional threat to the Axis forces trapped in the .Don. bend, Avest of Stalingrad, but to the whole of the enemy armies in South Russia, including the Caucasus. Tn a shrewd anticipation of what has now happened, the military correspondent of the “Sydney Morning Herald” wrote nearly a month ago:— After all, the German armies, east of a line drawn from Voronezh to Rostov, are in a relatively narrow and exposed salient, and it would be entirely in keeping with Russian strategical designs to attempt an enveloping move outwards from the Voronezh base. This would still further dislocate German plans, because the enemy would not know how to dispose his reserves it he had to ward jpff attacks at Voronezh, the Don bend, and perhaps the lower Don reaches at the same time. It is within the salient here mentioned that General von Ilotli’s army has been trapped west of Stalingrad and while Voronezh and Rostov are upwards of 300 miles apart, the Russians southwest of Stalingrad are at only about half that distance from Rostov. The Russian thrusts from south of Voronezh thus promise to add heavily to the enemy’s difficulties. There is, of course, no assurance that these difficulties will not be accentuated by further Russian attacks in widely distant areas. The successful extension of Soviet action against, the legions of “Corporal Hitler” also has to be considered always in relation to developments in other Avar areas —not least those arising out of the Allied operations in North Africa, which arc not. only making heavy immediate demands on Axis strength, but promise to open the way to full-powered attack on Southern Europe and not improbably on western. Europe as well.