Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, JULY 16, 1943. TWO AXIS FAILURES.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 July 1943, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, JULY 16, 1943. TWO AXIS FAILURES.

» — t J T |);is been suggested by some British commentators that the public, “in their justifiable admiration of the Allied feat 01. arms in Sicily, perhaps does not realise the significance of what is happening in Russia,” ■where the Germans have failed, after nearly a fortnight of exceedingly costly effort, to make any serious impression on the Russian defences in the Kursk salient. Whether there is or is not justification for this suggestion, it is plain enough that both in Sicily and in Russia great and momentous achievements stand to the credit 01. the Allied fighting forces. Both on the Orel-Byelgorod front and in Sicily events have taken shape which visibly and unmistakably augur well lor the ultimate victory of the United Nations. Nothing, it is true, has happened thus’far to justify hopes that victory will be won at an early date. The time, and the magnitude of the effort, needed finally to smash the resistance of the Axis Bowers admittedly have yet to be measured. Evidence of enemy weakness has appeared, however, in Sicily, where the Allies have so rapidly ami efficiently extended landing operations into the occupation 01. a large tract of territory including ports and airfields, and still more definitely in Russia. It is conceivable that on the Mediterranean, front the Axis Powers are hoping to concentrate their defensive stand on the mainland of Italy and on some or all of the islands thatp'einain in their hands, but in Russia no such reservation seems to be called for. In their attacks in the area of the Kursk salient they have used the greatest concentrations of mechanised and other force ever used in war. They have incurred the losses of men and materials to be expected in these circumstances. In spite of these efforts and sacrifices, they have failed to achieve their object, and it has yet to appear that they have any prospect of redeeming this failure. The position meantime, as a cablegram received yesterday pointed out, is that they have failed for the first time in a summer offensive in Europe. It is a situation which gives added point to the phrase used a few days ago by President Roosevelt when he described the Allied invasion of Sicily as the beginning of the end. The failure to date of the Germans in the Kursk salient area is the more noteworthy since there is every indication that they opened their offensive on the Eastern front this year with a determination to profit by the experience they gained, at greatcost, in 1941 and 1942. It lias been, said that last year and in the preceding year they made the mistake of attempting to accomplish too much. In any event, they elected this year to attack on a comparatively narrow front, using a maximum concentration of force. Although, as stated, this concentration was unexampled in war, the Germans have failed thus far to achieve even local success of any importance. For the Germans, the prospect thus opened is bleak. In resuming the offensive on the Eastern, front this year they must at a minimum have aimed at strengthening and consolidating their position. If they no longer hoped to destroy or cripple the Russian armies, they must at least have hoped to gain a measure of success that would enable them to establish conditions in which they would be able to conduct a reasonably economical defence against Russian onslaughts. It is of the highest, and, from the standpoint of the Allies, of the most promising significance that the Germans have failed to do this after the most concentrated, powerful and costly attacks ever made in a given time, and that as news stands at the moment of writing they are attempting to make head against powerful thrusts in which the Russians have broken deeply into the Orel defences.