BRITISH BUTTRESS RUSSIANS IN SOUTH

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 247, 18 October 1941, Page 7

BRITISH BUTTRESS RUSSIANS IN SOUTH

RAF. BOMBING AID Long Convoys Of Supplies Rushed To Caucasus United Press Association. —Copyrig-ht. Rec. 1 p.m. LONDON, Oct. 17. British forces will buttress the southern Russian armies in the Caucasus mountains, says the Daily Express special correspondent in Cairo. General Sir Archibald Wavell, British Commander-in-Chief in India, co-operating closely with the air force, has a sure chain of bases across northern Iran and Iraq.

It is considered unlikely that the Russians will yet be forced to retire to the mountains, but new bases built under Allied supervision await them spanning the Georgian oilfields and most of Iran.

The R.A.F.'s resistance will increase as the Germans advance. British long-range bombers are operating from aerodromes still beyond the Germans'-reach.

Tiflis is a potential southern military headquarters for the Russians, who are also massing on the defences of Astrakhan, which is thought to be the ultimate German objective.

Air bases on the Caspian Sea, supporting the Red Navy, which are also open to the R.A.F., in addition to Tiflis, Astrakhan and a chain of minor towns southwards and eastward of the Russian oil country, are being fast developed as depots to receive and distribute supplies from India and America. Long British motor convoys are nightly streaming northwards from Middle East ports. Speed is essential because the weather is not impeding the Germans Black Sea front, and the roads of the Ukraine are fairly solid. Since the Iranian and Syrian campaigns the roads and railways have been developed so that the Russians can expect continual supplies throughout the | winter.