A BACKGROUND OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 51, 24 November 1941, Page 6

A BACKGROUND OF THE WAR

Hitler And The Winter, BIGGEST OFFENSIVE ON MOSCOW

While the Eighth, Imperial Army in the unexpected heavy rain in the Western Desert has been making its brilliant onslaught, the Germans in Russia are not only increasing their.,threat' to the north Caucasus, but also" are again forcing a critical situation for Moscow.

Weather has been an important immediate factor at least on the Moscow front: the cold is intense, but the conditions have evidently cleared and the roads are hard. And, in the words of the Moscow “Pravda,” the Germans are attempting to take the city at all costs in order to escape the winter cold. General Vassily Sokolovsky, admittedly one of the Soviet’s ablest generals, was quoted recently by the military correspondent of the “Sydney Morning Herald” as claiming that winter must produce much stabilization .on the Russian front. In his opinion,, the Germans will lose their manoeuvrability, and most of their hitting power, and consequently their morale must be affected, Sokolovsky was confident that the Russians are more weatherhardened than the Germans, and mentioned the experience of the Finnish campaign as showing that they could stand 50 degrees (Centigrade) of frost. Shelter And Mobility-

Present events do not show that stabilization, but the correspondent is of the opinion that the weather must certainly play an increasingly important part in military operations on the Eastern Front, and, from the beginning of December onward, this may become the absolutely decisive factor. However, the appalling cold, which must ■ affect the activities of both sides, is ■only one factor in the situation. For example, the freezing of the ground surface and of waterways :to some degree restores mobility. Water obstacles lose most of their quality as such. Rivers become bridges of ice, permitting the traffic even of heavy vehicles. Experience in the RussoFinnish war in the winter of 1939 demonstrated, too, that shell-flre was of little use in shattering .the thick ice. It is for such reasons as these that the Leningrad garrison is endeavouring to form strong positional posts to the east of the city before the Germans can use the frozen surface of Lake Ladoga as a manoeuvring ground, while the Germans are endeavouring to carry through their'own offensive there.

Still another climatic factor comes into play. Heavy traffic churns up the surface of 'the ground, and constant falls of snow bring slushy conditions. Lately it was reported that German attempts to dig trenches before Moscow were being hampered by snowstorms, which filled the trenches as soon as they were excavated, and fighting was taking place with men kneedeep in mud and snow. Such conditions make the problem of winter quarters one of fundamental importance. The Russians still have large cities to provide shelter for their troops; the Germans lack these facilities. They have occupied no large cities immediately before Leningrad, Moscow, and Rostov—which they now claim to have taken —an'd, unless they operate from bases inordinately removed from the front line, they must be at a disadvantage against the Russians. The suggestion that they will use thousands of portable blockhouses to overcome this disadvantage does not provide a satisfactory answer to the problem. 1 The paramount necessity of obtaining winter quarters accounts for the furious German offensives on Moscow. Incessant Struggle

Hitler appears to be making a final grandiose attempt to break through, for the other alternative may well be a retreat, a manoeuvre which would not only be dangerous from a military point of view, but would also deal a shattering blow to the German boast of invincibility. For their part, the Russians have been trying to consolidate permanent positions on the approaches to the capital which could be held throughout the winter. It may be that the character of the winter campaign will be determined by the fighting in the immediate future. Hitler has been hurling 2,000,000 men into the struggle for the Russian capital, and is trying both to 'break through and to outflank the western perimeter defences. Up to the comparative uncertainty of the fighting of the last day or two, the Russians for weeks have held their ground, at Kalinin, Volokolamsk, an'd Mozhaisk, and have broken repeated enemy attempts to force the river Oka, southwest of the capital. The combination of forest tracts and river works makes the Oka a natural defence zone, the intrinsic strength of which has been demonstrated time and again in the last few weeks. Within its sweeping arc the Russians are able to hasten reinforcements from a central point to any threatened position along the rivers. They have all the gains that accrue to perimeter defence from a strong radial centre, and these will regain unless the defenders are outflanked by a decisive breach to the north or south. It is thus significant that the .main German thrust lately should have been round Tula, which would provide a means of turning the»rlver defences on the eastern flank and would turn the fighting toward Moscow over a considerable distance of the arc. It is for this reason that the Tula threat has for in the last fortnight been described as critical.