TWO SPLASHES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 April 1943, Page 3

TWO SPLASHES

AWAITED BY RUSSIANS IN MEDITERRANEAN & BLACK SEA. CONCERTED ACTION AGAINST GERMANY. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.20 a.m.) RUGBY, April 16. The Russians are watching two places on the , map(—fihe enemy bridgeheads in the Kuban and Tunisia—according to a Moscow message. Now all are waiting to hear two resounding splashes, one in the Mediterranean and the other in the Black Sea, which will mark the end of grand German strategy. While Soviet commentators dwell on the difficulties still facing the Allies in the last stage of the battle for the African shore, they consider that the enemy’s difficulties are greater, whether they try to fight a delaying action or to evacuate part of their forces to Italy. Wondering which bridgehead will be captured first, the commentators think it may be Tunisia, because the Germans can still reinforce their Kuban front from the Crimea and have an air strength equal to that of the Russians. The menace to the Caucasus would remain even if the Russians cleared the whole Kuban territory, so long as the Germans held the Crimea and the approaches to Rostov. It is considered that the effect of the Allied offensive in Africa on the Eastern front depends on the interval which elapses before a full air and land offensive begins against Italy. It is clear that any lull, in Western Europe enables the Germans to transfer large forces especially air forces at short notice between west and east. Their interior position and excellent railways give them a natural advantage in effecting such movements. The Western Allies, on the other hand, have an advantage in being able to strike unawares from the sea and along a very long coastline.