LENINGRAD WEAK POINT IN ENEMY STRATEGY

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 8, 4 October 1941, Page 9

LENINGRAD WEAK POINT IN ENEMY STRATEGY

(By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Received October 3, 7.50 p.m.) LONDON, October 2. It is widely believed that the German High Command, by withholding front-line news, aims to conceal to the utmost preparations for a new and giant-scale offensive with the object of inflicting a paralysing defeat on the whole of the Russian Army before winter. “The Times” correspondent on the German frontier says there are indications that the Germans are preparing to make a great wedge of drives toward the Volga and Caucasus, hoping for a quick success to furnish a base from which to execute a direct campaign against the oilfields at Baku, after which thej r would cut the chief BritishAmerican supply line to Russia. If, while doing this, the Germans could capture Leningrad they would be able to pour in from the Baltic new armies to advance eastward, forming with the drive on the southern front a vast pincer movement converging on Moscow. Marshal Timoshenko is making an effort to prevent this and is maintaining an unceasing offensive on the central front, forcing the Germans to relax their pressure on Leningrad, which has acquired more vital strategical importance since the fall of Kiev and the loss of the eastern Ukraine. This accounts for the grim, unyielding tenacity of the defence of Leningrad. The Stockholm correspondent of “The Times” says there are indications that the new offensive against Moscow will be on the largest possible scale not only from the south-east but also from the west and south-west. The preparations for this offensive have been long in hand, but it was intended to continue them till the German commander on the Leningrad front was able to co-operate. Field-' Marshal von Leeb, however, at the moment appears to be baulked and confused.

He seems to be fumbling to prevent the initiative, from definitely passing to Marshal Voroshilov’s troops inside the Leningrad area and along the Valdai Hills toward Velikiye-Luki. Much depends on what sort of hammerhead von Leeb is able to concentrate for the new blow, which he dare not delay long because a prolonged defensive standstill would inevitably be converted into a disastrous defeat.