Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, JULY 23, 1943. ANOTHER STALINGRAD?

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 July 1943, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, JULY 23, 1943. ANOTHER STALINGRAD?

* , "WHILE offensive action by the Western Allies is developing with good promise in the Mediterranean and elsewlieie, and seems likely to extend at any time into new areas, it is still in Russia that the declining power of the German war machine in relation to that of its intended victims is being made most clearly apparent. Recent events in the area of the Orel salient and on a front to the north and south now extending over a total distance of some hundreds of miles plainly mean that the German Army has once again failed disastrously in a region in which it is deployed at maximum strength and at the highest pitch of organisation of which it is capable. According to some reports which have come through din ing the last day or two, the German armies holding the defences of the Orel salient—defences built, elaborated and improved since 1941—arc “practically in the bag” now and are destined, to meet the fate which overtook some hundreds of thousands of their comrades at Stalingrad. Already the enemy has suffered enormous losses of men and material in his entirely unsuccessful offensive against the Kursk salient and now he is threatened, particularly by the grip the Russians are fastening on the all-important Bryansk-Orel road and railway, with envelopment in an area which he has done everything in his power to convert into an' impregnable fortress and base. The impressive contrast thus presented to the Eastern front campaigns of last year and the preceding year is of the better promise since the Russians arc least of all people inclined to overvalue an incomplete success or to indulge in premature hopes of final and decisive victory, hi an order of the day in February last, M. Stalin said that the strategy of the Nazis w{is defective “because, as a general rule, it under-estimates the strength and possibilities of the enemy and over-estimates its own forces.” hi saying this, however, the Soviet Premier has at all times insistently and emphatically warned his own people against falling into the enemy’s error of over-optimism and has demanded that they should rest all their hopes of victory on ever-increasing and more effective effort. To this leadership the Russian armies and people have responded so well as to justify handsomely the claims made not long ago by the Moscow newspaper “Pravda.” Soviet war material (it declared) is superior to that of the enemy. The Soviet people possess magnificent tanks, planes of the highest quality, splendid artillery, excellent rifles, automatic rifles and mortars. The discipline of their army is based not on blind drilling, but on the high morale of Red Army men and commanders, their enthusiasm for great aims. . . . The Soviet people have created all the necessary conditions for gaining the upper hand over the Germans. No matter what adventures the enemy may undertake, the Red Army has sufficient strength not only to resist him, but to inflict further devastating defeats. Whether the Germans are doomed to suffer at Orel another Stalingrad, and perhaps in the aftermath of that disaster to be thrown back in defeat along a great part of their Eastern front, remains to be seen. There can be no doubt in any case about the unrelenting resolution and courage, or the stern realism of outlook, with which the Russian armies and people are making their magnificent contribution to the ultimate victory of the United Nations.