FRANTIC CONCERN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 November 1943, Page 3

FRANTIC CONCERN

IN SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPE ANTICIPATIONS OF RUSSIAN INVASION’. GERMANS ADMIT GRAVITY OF SITUATION. (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) LONDON, November 1. All the capitals of south-east-ern Europe are frantically nervous, expecting a Russian break-through to their.territories, says the “Svenska Dagbladet’s” . Budapest correspondent. They have little confidence in the Germans’ ability to hold the Russian drive. Political quarters in these capitals are anxiously awaiting the, result of the Moscow conference, hoping that it will afford them some way out of their present dilemma between the Russian devil and the deep blue sea. Under the heading “Battle of destiny” a gloomy article on lhe Russian front appears in the Munich “Neueste Dachrichten.” “'The gravity of the Russian offensive concerns not only the Dnieper bend, but the entire south front, where we face the possibility of encirclement and the consequent shattering of our whole flank," it says. ‘The German leaders cannot, fail to realise that the Russians may succeed in opening tip roads to -south-east Europe.

“The present battles no longer aim at any military victory, but concern the life of the German nation and- of future generations. With contracted hearts we follow events, praying and hoping that our’army may succeed in overcoming the present crisis

“Our soldiers are facing massed artillery concentrations on a scale hitherto unknown. The greatest battles of the last war pale into insignificance in comparison with them.”

The German military commentator Captain Sertorius admitted that the Russian gains between the lower Dnieper, and the Crimea have assumed major proportions.