ENORMOUS LOSSES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 February 1943, Page 3

ENORMOUS LOSSES

SUFFERED BY GERMANS AT STALINGRAD TURNING POINT OF WAR REACHED. BUT ENEMY SPRING OFFENSIVE POSSIBLE. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, February 9. General Chuikov told a British United Press correspondent that it was estimated that the Germans throughout the fighting in the Stalingrad area lost 500,000 killed and taken prisoner and 1,000,000 wounded. General Chuikov and other Russian generals unstintedly praised the Germans’ tremendous resistance against impossible odds, but agreed that the German generals suffered too much from mechanical discipline, whereas the Russians were superior in individual initiative. Generals Chuikov and Rodimstev agreed that though the turning point of the war has been reached the German armies are still capable of resuming the offensive in the spring, General Chuikov adding, “Much, of of course, depends on a second front.” GERMAN PEOPLE KEPT IN IGNORANCE. OF THE LATEST EVENTS ’ IN RUSSIA. LONDON, February 9. The German public are being kept in almost complete ignorance of the latest events in Russia. The British newspapers and radio “listening post” report that Germany is still being fed with memories of Stalingrad; nothing yet has been said about the Russian recapture of Kursk, and it is more than two weeks since the German radio made any effort to give an intelligent summing-up of the position on the Eastern front. The

fighting near Kursk is still described as “fighting west’ of Voronezh.” German commentators today, however, again emphasised the Russians’ numerical superiority and the tremendous weight of their attacks. The Berlin censorship has allowed Swedish correspondents to speculate about the possibility of an early evacuation of Rostov.