THE GREAT REVERSAL

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 40, 17 February 1943, Page 2

THE GREAT REVERSAL

'TITE have planned ahead to such a degree that I have been able, in the middle of this gigantic war of materials, to cease production in many fields, for I know that there is not a single enemy left whom we would not be able to force down with the quantities of war material available." Thus Hitler, on October 3, 1941. He had much ground, though, as events were to show, it was treacherous ground, for his jubilant confidence. His great opening assault on Russia had gone, and continued to go, well. The battles around Kiev had been won, the city had been occupied, and nearly 700,000 prisoners were claimed. Moreover, the Germans regarded the Russian armies in that sector as so completely defeated as to be incapable of a counter-offensive. To the north, Leningrad was invested, and the prospect of its holding out for long seemed very slight. To the south, von Rundstedt's armies had reached the Black Sea coast, the Russians were on the point of abandoning Odessa, and the Germans were pressing forward into the Crimea. Most important of all in Hitler's eyes, what was intended to be the final assault on Moscow had begun, and German propaganda was clearly preparing to hail its success. Such, in broad outline, was the situation early in October, 1941. It was the month in which Kharkov, too, fell to the Germans, who made it their greatest base in South Russia. Now we are witnessing the grand revei sal of these tremendous German victories. Now it is the armies of Hitler which have immediately behind them a colossal defeat, a considerable retreat and the successive loss of important positions, of which Kharkov is the latest but clearly not the last. Now the German High Command has to struggle with the problems of armies enveloped or nearly enveloped, communications severed, roads and railways blocked or under bombing attack— and with the over-all problem of Russian armies more skilfully led than in the past, supremely confident and imbued with a determination to rid their country of the invader. This is the situation after nearly twenty months of war, a war in which the primary German objective was to destroy the Russian armies in the field, to make it impossible for her to raise fresh forces, and so to crush her will to continue the struggle. Territorial objectives were secondary, for if the first objective had been attained the Germans could have gone where they wished, taken what they wanted. They did, in fact, make enormous territorial gains, much of which has still to be retrieved, but the cardinal fact is that they failed in their primary objective. Of this the proof is seen in the striking advance, in winter, of the Russian armies, and the speed with which the Germans are yielding ground. How far they will go can only be a matter of speculation, but circumstances suggest that a decision has been made to retire much farther before m'aking a stand. Meanwhile there appears reason to hope that the Russians will press them hard all the way.