SWORD OF DAMOCLES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 May 1943, Page 4

SWORD OF DAMOCLES

HANGING OVER GERMANY’S HEAD EXPECTATION CF ATTACKS FROM WEST & EAST. EERIE PAUSE AT MOMENT IN RUSSIA. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day. 12.55 p.m.) LONDON, May 19. “We are not likely to allow Axis Europe any great length of time to recover from the battering it has just had,” says the Press Association’s military' correspondent. “The next phase of the war may come soon. The first blow in Russia is likely to come from the Germans, but the Red Army is ready, not only to meet this third attack, but also to deliver a counter-blow which may send the enemy reeling back. “There is an eerie pause at the moment, but it can be assumed that Britain and America- are assembling vast forces to strike at a time and place at which they hope to take the enemy by surprise. That is a factor which may well affect events in Russia. The attack on Europe hangs like a sword' of Damocles over Germany’s head. She has had to make dispositions in such a way that she can have strategical reserves available wherever the sword may fall.” The Swedish newspaper, “Social Dcmokraten” reports that the Germans are fortifying the Swedish frontier and evidently expect that their connections with Sweden will be severed in the event of an Allied invasion.

ENEMY AIR LOSSES IN KUBAN CONFLICT. INCLUDE MANY FIGHTERS OF LATEST TYPE. (Received This Day, 12.25 p.m.) LONDON. May IS. Great air battles continue in the Kuban area, where the Germans brought in new squadrons from Crimean airports, but the Russians still retain the initiative. The “Red Star” reports that the 500 planes lost by the Germans on this front in the past three weeks do not include planes destroyed on • the ground. The enemy losses included numerous fighters of the latest types. The Russians in the Lisichansk bridgehead, under cover of an artillery barrage, reinforced the defence lines lately captured from the Germans.