COMING BATTLES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 82, 7 April 1943, Page 4

COMING BATTLES

GERMAN OFFENSIVE "Heaviest Possible Blows" Urgent Allied Need British Official Wireless Rec. 2.30 p.m. RUGBY, April 6. During the present period of relative but obviously temporary stability on the battlefronts attention is inevitably turned to the prospects of the forthcoming campaigns. Press despatches from Moscow report the expectation of a renewed German offensive on a big scale in the near future as soon as the ground has dried enough in the centre. Persistent German efforts to gain positions across the upper Donetz may point to much bigger operations, while they are also probably dictated by a desire to prevent a renewal of the Russian initiative. Especially heavy German concentrations are reported behind the front from Briansk to Bielgorod. In this section the big German salient around Orel gives a valuable pivot for a large-scale drive south of Moscow, aimed at cutting the railways leading to the capital. Such an operation might be preceded by an attempt to eliminate the Russian salient based on Kursk. The Times points out that the Germans, by a series .of delaying actions, part offensive and part defensive, have put off the decision in North Africa till the eve of the summer campaigning season in Russia, in which they trust that the great superiority of Russian fighting men in* the winter warfare will be a thing of the past. As for the German offensive The Times writes: "Strictly military considerations suggest it may be more limited than last year and also in some degree directed against a region such as Moscow, where the belt of complete devastation is narrower than in the south." The Times concludes: "Since simultaneous Allied major offensives at present are an impossibility, the most urgent need is to strike Germany the heaviest possible bldws and afford the greatest measure of aid to Russia. Russia is Germany's most formidable foe on land as the combined forces of Britain and the United States are at sea and in the air. To that purpose we have to harness our energies while containing our foes elsewhere, and when the opportunity affords of striking back at them. Such is the programme laid down by the Prime Minister. It is also that on which the mind of the nation is set. Obvious needs which stand out are to fight the U-boats with all our skill and resolution and drive the Axis forces in Tunisia into the sea as soon as possible."