Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1943. GERMANY’S EASTERN DISASTER.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 November 1943, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1943. GERMANY’S EASTERN DISASTER.

ALTHOUGH it lias its place in a vast pattern of war to winch the other Allied Powers have made and are making their, full contribution, the .Russian offensive in itself is developing on the grand scale and with truly magnificent effect. There is no reason to suppose that any respite or relief worth mentioning will be gained by the Germans from this time forward. Nothing else is to be expected than that the summer and autumn offensive in which the Soviet armies have driven so fast and far towards the frontiers of the Reich ami its satellites will be continued unbrokenly and with, not less deadly effect in the winter offensive for which the Red Army is declared to have made full and ample preparation. ; i The best the Germans can now hope for is that they may be engaged in a full tide of battle with the Russians, on or near the frontiers of the Reich in places at least, when the Western Allies launch that mass invasion of the Continent which Mr Churchill has said will be launched at the right time. Germany is menaced by much more than a ■war on two fronts, lhe piospect opening before her is that of being ringed about by avenging armies in a fashion 'which will make her interior communications of small avail. At the same time, the vilely maltreated peoples of the invaded and oppressed countries are awaiting their hour. As events are now marching, the performances of the great German propaganda machine, one of the most important weapons in the Hitlerian armoury, have become merely pathetic. With Goebbels reduced to “if only” talk, General Dietmar, who ranks as the principal German military commentator, did not even pretend, in his latest reported broadcast, to take an objective and reasoned view of war developments. Instead he pleaded that Hitler must have known what he was’ talking about when he promised that Germany would win the last battle on the Eastern front. The ideas of the Fuehrer, Dietmar declared, “come from sources beyond the scrutiny of cold reason.” ft may be agreed that grounds for Hitler’s alleged anticipation of final victory for Germany are not apparent to the cold reason of the norma! human being in the Reich or anywhere else. As it stands, the situation on the Eastern front is far too complex to be appreciated in its details by the lay observer. It is self-evident, however, that the whole strategic plan to which the Germans were working on the Eastern front has been wrecked and smashed irretrievably. Talk of an elastic defence opposed to the mighty thrusts of the Red Army visibly has become nonsensical. German armies totalling something like 200 divisions are escaping disaster for the moment, in the extent to which they are escaping it, only by giving ground, much of it fortified at enormous cost in labour and material. It is not yet clear whether the enemy masses in the Dnieper bend are doomed to be enveloped or are likely to be able to save themselves in part by headlong retreat. So- far as the southern front is concerned, however, the Crimea is already enveloped by the Red Army'and Poland and Rumania are all but immediate objectives. This is only part of the picture. The! entire battle zone on, the central, and northern fronts in Russia normally is frozen well before the end of November. That fact, in conjunction with the envelopment of Gomel and. the receipt penetration' of the enemy defences in the Nevel area, much further north, probably means that very soon the Red Army will be driving towards the Baltic States and threatening the’i envelopment of the German northern armies, while it continues its drive to Odessa and bevond in lhe south.

A great deal must depend in the immediate future on the extent to which the German people are prepared to be dragooned and intimidated by the Gestapo into upholding a lost cause. If the German armies continue to fight against th f Russians on or inside their own frontiers and simultaneously against the Allies in Southern and Western Europe, they may still be formidable for a time. But they are visibly' doomed to final defeat which could be averted only by some apparently incredible political or military blunder on the part of the United Nations. It has been said justly that the convergence of the Allies on “the Inner Fortress” of Nazi Germany is now a grim military reality.