SENSE OF CRISIS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 January 1943, Page 3

SENSE OF CRISIS

SEEN IN GERMAN PRESS REPORTS GENERAL APPREHENSION. OVER SITUATION IN RUSSIA. LONDON, January 25. An unprecedented sense of crisis is seen in German Press reports. The London “Standard’s” BePne correspondent says the whole country may be said to have been transported into a state of apprehension and alarm over the military situation on the Russian front. Despatches from Berlin say that not since the outbreak of war have Germans been informed with an equally brutal frankness that the fate of the nation is at stake, despite the resistance of the German troops on the Russian front. Deep gloom is shown in .editorials, which talk freely about a serious setback. The “Evening News” Stockholm correspondent says Goebbels is preparing the German home front for the loss of Stalingrad, which means cither the capitulation or complete annihilation of the German Sixth Army. A partial admission of the plight of the trapped forces during the last few days has come as a blow surpassing anything the German public thus far has suffered. The “Boersen Zeitung” states that Germany has suffered her first setback. Her position is as critical as England’s was during the Battle of Britain. “The British took their setbacks with courage and fortitude,” it adds. “We must show the same power of resistance.” Other newspapers harp on the note that everything is at stake, including the existence of every German.

The Brussels radio described the situation at Stalingrad as so serious that one must become resigned to the fact that the defenders cannot be helped any more.