RUSSIAN ADVANCE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 February 1943, Page 4

RUSSIAN ADVANCE

COMMENT ON POSSIBILITIES TIME FACTOR. OPPORTUNITY FOR ALLIES TO STRIKE. (Special Correspondent.) LONDON, February 16. “Can the Russians keep it up?” “Can the Germans advance again?” are questions at present being asked. Negley Farson, writing in the “Daily Mail,” declares that the Soviet has a not inexhaustible reservoir of manpower, and that her population has fallen below 130 millions, that is, deducting 50 to 60 millions lost by death or the German occupation. This figure, he says, is considerably less than the population of the Axis and other European Powers to provide soldiers. Taking account of th% factory helots of occupied Europe, Germany can free proportionately more men as soldiers from her population than Britain, America and Russia. The Germans boast that they can create 250 entirely new divisions, which Russia would have great difficulty in doing. “The very fact that the situation on the fighting front now favours the Russians,” says Mr Farson, “makes time more important to them than to the Nazis. The Russians cannot afford to let the Germans rebuild their armies. And mark this —the Red Army does not intend to destroy itself. “The Nazis might have to commit semi-suicide, but the Red Army will remain—a strong force, intact, to be used in the settlement of this war. The Red Army, as such, will be the strongest political force in Europe.” Mr Farson expressed the opinion that the main objective of the Red

Army is to strike the Nazis a mortal blow at the least possible cost to the Russians—the objective being the Dniester River. He forecasts that the Russians intend to bomb the Ploesti oilfields into utter uselessness. Lieutenant-Colonel J. R. Kennedy, in the “Daily Express,” expresses the opinion that the Russians intend to advance to Riga, and that the Germans may retreat to the Riga-Odessa line, which they could hold with 200 divisions, with others to form a powerful mobile reserve. He says that one of Russia’s handicaps is that she is linked to the old and new factories in the Urals by few railways, comprising only two double tracks, which cannot suffice for too ambitious offensives by armies of millions, and that the load on these railways will not be eased till the recaptured mines and factories start again. “If the Germans go back to their own frontier months may elapse be-

fore the Russians could mount a serious attack against them. It is on these months that Germany will count to regain her breath. That is her supreme chance and our great danger. Russia says that Germany has already sent many divisions from Western Europe to the eastern front. We can see how difficult it would be for Germany to meet any attack in the west n;ow or during that critical period when she is moving back to a shorter line, but thereafter the problem will be simpler. Opportunity seems to be knocking at our door- just as our leaders are talking of a great Allied offensive.”