SUPPLIES FOR RUSSIA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 February 1943, Page 4

SUPPLIES FOR RUSSIA

MAGNITUDE OF ALLIED ASSISTANCE MR ALEXANDER REVIEWS SITUATION. RED ARMY'S GREAT FEAT. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, February 20. Speaking at Bristol in honour of the Red Army, the First Lord of the Admiralty, Mr Alexander, said that Britain and America had sent to Russia 6200 tanks, 5600 aircraft and 8500 trucks from October, 1941, to the end of 1942. Mr Alexander said that the Red Army would have won undying glory if it had only fought the Germans to a standstill, but the Russians had followed the heroic defence of Stalingrad with an offensive which had rolled the Germans back. The Red Army had followed the traditional Russian strategy and had lured the enemy on till the limit of his advance had been reached, and then struck, destroying his armies and forward supply dumps when they were most vulnerable. Apart from the supplies which were being sent to Russia, said Mr Alexander, the victory of the Eighth Army had forced the Axis to send land and air forces to Africa which otherwise would have been available for the Russian front.

From September 1 to January 1 the British forces had destroyed 136 supply ships in the Mediterranean, amounting to 338,000 gross tons, and seriously damaged 44,000 out of 169,000 tons and damaged 68,000 out of 119,000 tons. The total loss, sunk and damaged, was 248 ships, or 626,000 tons, and the loss of hundreds of thousands of tons of tanks, guns, ammunition, fuel stores and a considerable number of troops. The Russian fleets, Mr Alexander said, had also been active, the Baltic Fleet being a “flaming shield” for Leningrad and the Black Sea fleet contributing to the downfall of the German Caucasian offensive. The victorious campaigns in both Russia and North Africa had shown how sea power could sustain the army, and had also shown how its lack of sea power was going to help bring about the downfall of tlfb Axis.