Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, MAY 20, 1943. AN OFFENSIVE UNDER WAY.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 May 1943, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, MAY 20, 1943. AN OFFENSIVE UNDER WAY.

all. times responsible leaders of the United Nations have been cal-eful to discourage hopes of easy or rapid victory over Axis gangsterdom and to insist on the need for everincreasing effort in order that ultimate victory may be assured. While that need stands unmodified, it is clear that the doom of the gangster nations is being brought steadily into nearer prospect. Following on what was accomplished by the Russians in their -winter offensive and on the great victory won by the Allies in North Africa, the breaching of the Ruhr dams by the R.A.F. —an achievement the results of which are described by expert and impartial Swiss onlookers as the greatest catastrophe Germany has suffered since the outbreak of war—plainly is of splendid promise as it bears on the further conduct of the struggle.

This devastating blow at the heart of German war industry stands unchallenged as the most impressive demonstration to date of the extent to which the methods and weapons by means of which Nazi Germany hoped to overcome and enslave the rest of the world are being improved upon and turned against her. Much, however, as attention is at present concentrated upon the expectation of an early and progressive development of destructive attacks upon the enemy in western and southern Europe, a great deal must continue to depend upon the course of events on the Eastern front, the war theatre in which Germany still has concentrated by tar the greater part of her available land forces.

The hope now raised is that Germany and her satellites in the immediate future will find themselves exposed to a coordinated tempest of attack from all sides against which they will be incapable of making head. In this tremendous combined onslaught, Russia has a very great part to play and there is every indication that she is prepared to play that part with full vigour and effect. This appears both in the course during the past month or two of the localised but important battles that have been and are still being fought in the Donetz and Kuban areas and in the rising power of the Red Air Force in relation to that of the enemy.

Much speculation is current at present as to which side will next strike major blows on the Eastern front. Russia and Germany, naturally, are both doing' everything in their power to conceal their respective intentions and preparations and only the test of events will show which of them actually holds the major strategic initiative. In the extent to which actual developments have taken shape, however, the advantage plainly is with the Russians.

Since last March, for instance, the Germans have been striving at great and continuing cost to improve their position on the line of the River Donetz and thus far they have striven vainly. Against all that the enemy could attempt, the Russians have retained their bridgeheads west of the river, at Chuguyev, opposite Kharkov, and at Izyum, further south, and within the last few r days they have established themselves in yet another Donetz bridgehead at Lisichansk.

, In Russian hands, these bridgeheads represent valuable advanced bases for further thrusts to the west. The position of course, would J)e reversed if the Germans were able to drive the Russians back across the Donetz. The country between that river and the Don and beyond would then be exposed anew to Axis invasion. It is precisely this reversal, however, that the Germans have found themselves unable to accomplish in many weeks of costly effort. At the same time, they are withstanding with difficulty the Soviet onslaught- on the very limited foothold they still retain in the western Caucasus. Preparations about which very little is known have been and are being made on various other parts of the great Eastern front, but it counts for a good deal, at the broadest view, that in the vital Donetz and Kuban areas the Germans have been spending freely, but ineffectively strength they undoubtedly would have preferred to hold in reserve for a major effort in the t summer campaign.