THE HUN'S TRAIL

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 39, 16 February 1944, Page 7

THE HUN'S TRAIL

APPALLING RUIN

AND RUSSIA REBUILDS

(By VALENTIN MAKAROV.) MOSCOW. Red Army forces liberating their native soil are confronted with the terrible scene of houses in ruins, electric stations and water systems blown up and trams burned out. The losses inflicted by the German armies runs into many millions of rubles. It will take years to restore some cities, but the first task that must be undertaken in the liberated towns and villages is to bring things back into some kind of normal working order. Dwellings and public bathhouses, laundries and trams must be repaired and the Russian people must be supplied with light and water. I have recently returned from Stalingrad, and there I saw hundreds of skilled workers from all over the country helping to restore this industrial centre. Twenty-five kilometres of water supply have been repaired, and water is already being provided in the central and southern sections of the city. In the city itself, 1100 houses have been restored, 96 in the factory settlements. Work has been begun on the restoration of big public buildings, including city hospitals and schools. More than 100 shops and at least 60 public dining halls have been reopened. Immense Work ATieacT But we don't limit our care to Stalingrad alone. On August 1, ahead of the time set by the Government, the trams began to run along the principal routes of the city of Krasnodar. The water supply system was put into working order as well. Very important work has been carried out in the Rostov region, and primarily in Rostov itself. The water systems in seven towns, which supply 31,000 cubic metres of water per day, have been put into working order. This is true, too, of towns in the Voronezh region, in Ostrogorsk and Rossosh. Now work has started on the restoration of towns in the Smolensk region, in Vyazma, Gzhatsk and Sychevka. One shouldn't imagine that life in the liberated towns has completely returned to normal, however. Only the first steps have been made in this direction, and much work is still lying ahead. "Restoration" does not sound right when applied to many of these towns, so great is the damage inflicted by the Nazi troops. Firstly, we are short of skilled workers. Local populations do all they can do to help, and short-term courses have been set up in a number of vocational schools, where many trades are taught. Overcoming Shortages Also, building materials and equipment are insufficient. The scope of building work going on in the liberated districts is so great that the demand for materials can be only partially met. So as to lessen this demand and not to burden the transportation facilities with unnecessary loads, enterprises are set up on the spot for the production of binding solutions substituting for Portland cement and lime, roofing materials and tools. In Chelyabinsk, in the Urals, with the most primitive equipment, Soviet workers succeeded in making a solution out of slag which is a perfect , substitute for cement. While the Red Army is pushing westward freeing the Soviet soil of the enemy, hot in its tracks come the advancing units of builders. Engineers and other specialists have already left for Orel and Byelgorod to determine the scope of the reconstruction work to be done there.— Auckland Star and N.A.N. A.