CAN THE RUSSIANS KEEP IT UP?

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 40, 17 February 1943, Page 3

CAN THE RUSSIANS KEEP IT UP?

BRITISH WONDER

German Manpower Reserve Still Formidable N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent Rec. 12.30 p.m. LONDON, Feb. 16. "Can the Russians keep it up?" and "Can Germany advance again?" are questions at present being asked in Britain. Mr. Negley Farson, in the Daily Mail, declares that time is now just as important for the Russians as for the Germans, and that the Soviet has not an inexhaustible reservoir of manpower. , The Soviet population, Mr. Farson says, has fallen below 130 millions— that is, deducting the 50 or 60 million people lost by death or through the German occupation. This figure is considerably less than the population from which the. European Axis Powers can provide soldiers, while taking account of the factory helots of. occupied Europe, Germany can free proportionately more men for military service than can Britain, the United States and Russia. The Germans boast that they can create 250 entirely new divisions, which Russia would have great difficulty in doing. "The very fact that the situation on the fighting front now favours the Russians makes this more important for them than for the Nazis," Mr. Farson says. "The Russians cannot afford to let the Germans rebuild their armies, and—mark this—the Red Army does not intend to destroy itself. The Nazis might have to commit semi-suicide, but the Red Army will remain—a strong force, intact, to be used in the settlement of this war. The Red Army, as such, will be the strongest political force in Europe." Red Army's Objective Mr. Farson expresses the opinion that the Red Army's main objective is to strike the Nazis a mortal blow with the least possible cost to itself—its objective is the Dnieper River. He forecasts that .the Russians intend to bomb the Ploesti oilfields (in Rumania) into utter uselessness. Lieut.-Colonel J. R. Kennedy, writ-1 ing in the Daily Express, says the Russians intend to advance towards Riga, and that the Germans may retreat to the Riga-Odessa line, which they could hold with 200 divisions, while using others to form a ppwerful mobile reserve. One of Russia's handicaps is that she is linked to her old and new factories in the Urals by few railways, comprising only two double tracks, whichV cannot suffice for too-ambitious offensives by armies of millions. The load on these railways will not be eased until the recaptured mines and factories resume production. "If the Germans go back to their own frontier months may elapse before the Russians could mount a serious attack against them," this commentator says. "It is on these months that Germany will count to regain her breath. That will be her supreme chance, and our great danger. Russia says Germany has already sent many j divisions from Western Europe to the eastern front. We can see how difficult it would be for Germany to mf-1t any attack in the west now, or dyeing that critical period, when she back to a shorter line, but, thereafter her problem will be simpler. Opportunity seems to be Knocking at our door, just as our leaders are talking of a great Allied offensive."