Soviet's Might Surprised All But Churchill

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 29, 3 February 1945, Page 4

Soviet's Might Surprised All But Churchill

Special to the Auckland Star By TREVOR SMITH LONDON, Jan. 28 An outstanding fact behind the Red Army's smashing blows against Germany in the East is that Russia's total miltary strength—l have seen the figures but cannot publish them yet—far exceeds anything we could ever have inmagirted—and they exclude Soviet forces in Hungary and the Far East. The German military commentator von Hammer, puts Russian total strength as over 3,500,000 men. Perhaps even the Germans can be guilty of understatement.

Military history has known nothing remotely comparable to the Russians' evolving, launching and ingenious handling of mass warfare. In each category of men's tanks, firepower and planes the Soviet outnumbers the Wehrmacht.

The staggering immensity of the Russian drives has left some of our. high officials here almost breathless. They are still rubbing their eyes. But not Mr. Churchill. You may recall that he said in the House of Commons last week, "Marshal Stalin is always punctual." Marshal Stalin kept Mr. Churchill informed throughout about the building of his fabulous striking power. He told him that he would strike as soon as he was ready. Pundits Confounded How Mr. Churchill, keeping as silent as "the Sphinx of the Kremlin," grinned as he read some of the pundits' taunts about Stalin's "sit-down tactics" and hints that the Russians might do a deal with Hitler! The "Russians are always right" school has been just as awry as the Communist bogey school. Many here and elsewhere were only too ready to say that Marshal Stalin was sitting down on the Eastern Front because the British and Americans were dithering on the Western Front and because of political differences with the Allies. What are the facts? Nobody has Deen more generous than Marshal Stalin in those "top secret" telegrams to Mr. Churchill about the Normandy landings and subsequent events. Marshal Stalin Knows what British seapower has accomplished, he knows how Britain has drained her 46,500,000 populace' for manpower, he knows that Britain's commitments are far and wide, the size of her Navy and Air Force and just what is the total of Allied manpower on the Western Front. His telegrams show full appreciation and understanding of all this. But, above all, there is not the slightest evidence that after Normandy Marshal Stalin uttered a single word to the Allies about their not doing enough. AVhy Do They Fight On? Why do the Germans, knowing that they are doomed, fight on; why may they fight on even after Berlin goes? The Huns, with courage born of desperation, know that, barring miracles, it is death or Siberia for them. The Russians seek vengeance, and who will deny it to them? Perhaps a few bishops, a few sloppy sentimentalists, but certainly not. a British Government headed by Mr Churchill.

The Huns have perpetrated atrocities in Russia, and upon Russian prisoners, beyond all description. The British Government has the most comprehensive and circumstantial accounts of these from British eyewitnesses and prisoners of war.

The Russians, because they did not subscribe to the Geneva convention, have been treated like animals. They have been kicked, battered, tortured and shot at sight. The Huns know that the Russians are going to have vengeance, and they are conscience-stricken. Russia and Japan Will it be the Ides of March for Japan? Watch this month closely, because we may soon get a pointer to Russia's real intentions about the Pacific war.

The Russo-Japanese fisheries agreement has a year to run, but is subject to confirmation dating from next March.

It is noteworthy-that since Marshal Stalin branded the Japanese aggressors, the Soviet press has not merely been persistently assailing Russia's Far Eastern neighbours, but naming them as the aggressors in the Philippines.

A woman priced a pair of sheets in one of London's big West End stores. "Thirty-seven pounds, madam," said an assistant. Madam swooned. Recovering, she asked, "Haven't you anything cheaper 7" "Only these, madam—£32," said the assistant. "But," she added, "they're just rubbish."

This week two Soviet films are dwarfing Hollywood's synthetic offerings in London. I hope they reach New Zealand. They should be seen in every land pledged to ensure that the Huns never again are capable of perpetrating diabolical horrors.

One of the films is Mark Donskey's "The Rainbow," which the London Sunday Observer's film critic regards as "one of the most dreadful masterpieces ever photographed." The other film is Dovzhenko's superb documentary, "The Battle of the Ukraine," in uncut form. There is no squeamishness about Britain's film censors, and rightly so. These films are another reminder of the immensity of the task ahead of civilising the Huns. Mr. Churchill Mr. Churchill's war review in Parliament last week was a dazzling send-off for his meeting with Marshal Stalin and President Roosevelt. In my view, and I have heard all his war speeches, it was one of his best as a piece of oratory.

One man who knows the "Old Man" better than most, his physician (Lord Moran), who accompanies him on all his wartime .iourneyings, gives this glimpse of Mr. Churchill in his just-published book, "The Anatomy of Courage." "Men whose personality gives them dominion over others will not be separated from their followers by any accident of time and space. "In the streets of red Glasgow I have heard men who had only opened their mouths at politicians to revile them, murmur 'Good old Winnie.'

"I have seen the hard faces of dockers at Rcsyth soften when they caught a glimpse of that formidable jowl, set on the cigar as if he would crush it, the whole countenance brooding over the bloody conflict, so that his head had sunk into his body until his neck seemed to have been left out."