BEST STRATEGIC VICTORY OF WAR

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 41, 18 February 1943, Page 5

BEST STRATEGIC VICTORY OF WAR

KHARKOV RECAPTURE

Donetz Basin Encirclement Believed Developing

N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent Rec. 10.30 a.m. LONDON, Feb. 17. "The Red Army has won the greatest strategic victory of the war. The fall of Kharkov makes the whole of Western Ukraine untenable for the Germans." "He who holds Kharkov controls the Ukraine. The rapid envelopment and subsequent fall of the city which last spring so stoutly withstood the Russian offensive is an unmistakable sign of collapsing German morale." "By this latest victory our mighty Allies are demonstrating that the impetus of their offensive is far from spent and they may yet break finally the Nazis' aggressive power." These are comments heard in London on the , fall of Kharkov. It is emphasised that the city controls a network of eight railways and six main roads. Without it the Germans were virtually deprived of communications strong enough to maintain their army east of the River Dneiper. Its fall unhinges the whole of the supply position in the centre and north. Kharkov has commercial and industrial value in addition to military value. Its tractor plant previously employed 30,000 operatives and was second only to the Stalingrad plant. It has also a mammoth agricultural machinery factory and electrical equipment works. The Russians are npw in virtual control of the Orel-Crimea railway, which is the most important strategic line along the whole Russian front. It is considered that the advance to Dnepropetrovsk and Zaporozhe can now be pressed confidently, that a grand-scale encirclement of the Donetz Basin is in process of completion and that a repetition of the Stalingrad success seems to be within the Russian grasp. Nazi Commentators Worried It is obvious that the Axis propagandists are still reeling from the shock of the loss of Rostov, for all the commentators, from LieutenantGeneral Dietmar down to Captain Sertorious, last night admitted the gravity of the situation in Russia. Dietmar even used such terms as "lost battle," "painful reverse," and "loss of very valuable territory." He also drew the interesting conclusion that "even our heavy setbacks need not prove decisive if the people who direct these campaigns learn from the mistakes they have made, and draw the obvious lessons from them." It is pointed out that this implied criticism of those responsible for the disaster could not fail to include the Supreme Commander, Hitler himself. "I am far from belittling the seriousness of the setbacks we have suffered," said Dietmar. "I would not dream of calling our retreat from the Don and the Caucasus 'successful manoeuvres.' Our reverses are painful indeed. Our people must prove strong enough to face this trial. Nevertheless, recent events should be regarded only as painful transfers to new areas of operations. For the first time we now wield space as a weapon. Hitherto it has been a Russian advantage. "It is the immensity of the Russian space which dictates our tactics. It explains our defence of Stalingrad, and all of the smaller key positions have been captured by the Russians only after heavy battles."'

"Considerable Losses" Dietmar added: "Imagine our plight if we had such a setback in the west. There we should have found ourselves with our backs to the wall. "Our troops fighting in retirement from the Donetz have suffered considerable losses, but they have prevented a final Russian break through. The riussian offensive is being carried out with masses of men greater than any that history has ever seen in action before. Therefore it does not matter where we bring the Russian steam-roller to a standstill. It matters only that we do bring them to a standstill. "The loss pf the Don Bend and the Caucasus is a heavy setback, but even these lost battles are not decisive. The reverse must be considered to be the beginning of new action. The vast spaces we have conquered must now serve us as a weapon. Nothing is yet decided. Nothing has been won and nothing lost." New Siberian and Urals Armies Mrs. Anne O'Hare McCormick, in an article in the New York Times, says that the crescendo movement of the Russian drive gives reality to reports from Sweden that fresh armies of vast size are being trained in Siberia and the Urals for a gigantic summer offensive to carry out M. Stalin's order to drive the last German from Russian soil before the end of the year. Mrs. McCormick says: "These reports bear out the observations of Polish prisoners of war, who brought news from Siberia last year that a Soviet force of between two and three million men were being drilled for this year's campaign. When these new troops are thrown into the field they are quite likely to clear the Nazis from Russia. What then?