GROWING INSECURITY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 March 1943, Page 3

GROWING INSECURITY

OF ENEMY NORTHERN FRONT TIMOSHENKO’S OFFENSIVE. OPENING OF IMPORTANT POSSIBILITIES. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, March 2. Discussing the potentialities of Marshal Timoshenko’s thrust, the Moscow correspondent of “The Times” emphasises that the Russian success in thrusting the German 16th Army across the River Pola and its tributaries improves the position, for future offensives, besides fortalling the German designs on Bologoye, which is a vital junction in the Moscow-Leningrad railway and regarding which the Russians have always been nervous. “With the Russian spearhead at Velikiye-Luki firmly wedged in the German positions, with Marshal Timoshenko’s armies moving up to the line on the right flank, and also with the much improved communications to Leningrad, the northern part of the front is becoming one to which the Germans must pay increasing attention, because they can ill afford to lose ground there,” the correspondent says. “Marshal Timoshenko’s victory improves the Russian communications in a region where much depends upon the rapidity with which supplies can be moved. Lychkovo (one 'of the recaptured towns) stands on a railway going westward from Bologoye to Staraya Russia, but the Germans occupy a powerful position beyond the Lovat River (south of Lake Ilmen.) “The utmost caution should be observed in expectations regarding the operations of the immediate future. Both sides are silent regarding the Vyazama-Gzhatsk-Rzhev sectors, where the \ Russians were unusually active last week”. The Moscow “Red Star” says that in the course of the eight-day attack north-west of Moscow, Marshal Timoshenko’s forces took only three hours to storm, their way in and throw the Germans out of Demyansk, where the Russians captured more than 40 planes on an aerodrome. After wrecking the forward defences with artillery Russian infantry penetrated deeply into the German positions. Morley Richards, writing in the “Daily Express,” says- that Marshal Timoshenko’s latest drive may develop into the Red Army’s biggest offensive. “It is important for what it may achieve rather than for the victory that has so far been gained,” he says. ■ ITALIAN ARMY WITHDRAWN FROM RUSSIA FOR REST. DETAILS OF NEW GERMAN DEMANDS. LONDON, March 2. The Rome radio announced that the Italian Eighth Army, consisting of 10 divisions, has been withdrawn from Russia “for a short rest.” Mussolini, in an order of the day to the Eighth Army, said: “You have given innumerable proofs of stubbornness and courage. You fought to the limits of your ability against numerically superior forces, drenching your flag in blood.” Hitler and Mussolini met recently on the Italian-German frontier, according to the Lugano newspaper “Corriere del Ticino,” says the “Daily Mail.” Von Ribbentrop accompanied Hitler, and then went on to Rome with Mussolini to continue the conversations. The “Corriere del Ticino” is known to have close contacts in the Fascist Party. Four direct demands on Italy were among von Ribbentrop’s propositions at the Rome conference, says the Berne correspondent of the “New York Times.” They were: (1) Half a million Italian workers for the German war industries; (2) the immediate dispatch of 15 more Italian divisions to the eastern front; 3) the intensification of Italian naval action against ‘ the Allies in the Mediterranean, a contribution of German officers and men to facilitate action; and (4) more energetic measures by the Italian secret police to stamp out growing whispering against Hitler and also defeatism. Gestapo assistance was offered. Agreement in principle is reported on the demands.