A BACKGROUND OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 59, 3 December 1941, Page 6

A BACKGROUND OF THE WAR

Strength Of Moscow WORLD’S DIPLOMATS WATCH BATTLES It is not likely to be only a coincidence that there lias been much talk of imminent, decisions for worse or better in the relations between Japan and the ABOD Powers this week—a week in which the battle for Moscow has entered its greatest climax. Because Press reports are usually kept as objective and factual as possible it has been easy for the reader to believe that American-Japanese relations are focused simply in the Washington taiks; instead, it is reasonable to as- \ sume that their focus is in the Moscow battle, and to a. probably lesser hut ' still important extent in the German defeat at Rostov and the “Battle of Africa,” and that these are being watched by the Japanese adventurists with special eagerness. * The Germans’ previous vaunted of- < fensives against Moscow have broken down at the city's outer defences; The present offensive, however, is slowly grinding forward, and whether it can continue or whether the German horde will quail before the defenders’ mass fervour may possibly be indicated in the next few days. The strategic course of the war and the fate of perhaps many millions of soldiers and citizens in far more than that one part . of the world rest on this. According to Anna Louise Strong, correspondent of the North American Newspaper Alliance, who lived for some years in Moscow, the assault on the capital might well break the German armies. ' She has given a description of the Moscow defences and factories as they existed before Stalin “leap-frogged” his industries further east. Moscow (she wrote) is not only the most difficult of all Soviet cities to conquer; in everything that makes a modern fortress, Moscow is probably the strongest fort-ress-city in the world. Lesson Of Maginot Line Kiev is nothing to take; it is historically vulnerable. It was taken back and forth 17 times during the wars of invasion in 1918-20. Leningrad is much more difficult; it has never been taken by an enemy since Peter the Great founded, it. And Moscow is far stronger. Moscow always was a strong strategic centre, as well as Russia’s biggest industrial city. The wars of 1918-20, which conquered most of Russia’s territory, did not take either Moscow or Leningrad. Since that time Moscow's industrial and strategic- possibilities have been greatly developed. Moscow produces 15 per cent, of the UjSjS.R.’s total industrial output, fit is roughly comparable to Chicago, having about the same population—--4,137,01B—and8 —and located similarly in the ", heart of the country as a terminus of many railroads which do not pass through the city, but shoot out from it , like the spokes of a wheel. Moscow produces automobiles, aeroplanes and all modern weapons; it has the largest ball-bearing works in the world. It would thus be a prize without parallel if tne Germans could get it; but it is also defended like a prize.

Modern defence consists of the mobility of high-powered armed forces rather than of dead fortifications; that wa,s one lesson of the Maginot Line. In'recent years, the 11 railways which shoot out from Moscow have been connected by a belt railway, a great ring in the city’s outskirts, this makes it possible to shift troops and supplies around the city and send them out iu any direction. Supplementing these railways is a new system of canals which, has changed Moscow from an inland city to a port accessible to five seas; the Baltic, White, Caspian, Azov and Black Seas. Even <f an enemy held three sides of Moscow, the city could draw supplies from the fourth side. Canals, being very vulnerable to guerrillas, are of much less use’ to an invader. A new boulevard system supplements the railways and canals. It also consists of diverging spokes, connected by wide concentric rings. The ring boulevards, incidentally, replaced the ancient city fortifications, and are now the belt of the modern mobile defence. In recent years they have been widened tfll some of the boulevard spokes and the outer ring boulevard are from three to five times as wide as New York’s Fifth Avenue.

Prepared For Siege Many Moscow dwellers—l was one ot them —rather mourned the removal of trees from the centre of these ring boulevards and the tearing down ot picturesque old churches at traffic junctions. It made the city look bare and seemed not entirely demanded by existing traffic. But now it is clear that the ruthless widening or these boulevards makes it possib-e to shoot three to six lines of motorized troops, including tanks, in any direction through Moscow at great speed. This manoeuvring army would be defended from the air by an air defence which London experts have found far superior to London’s. The anti-aircraft guns maintain several levels of exploding shells instead of one. Several enormous air fields are within the city limits. The largest is reached by a swift subway which is much further underground than most of New York s subways. . Moscow can make and repair ak m ar machines inside the city. Her electric power no longer comes from long haul coal, as in the first world war; it is based on local deposits behind the city, developed in the last 15 years. Moscow’s water supply comes from a mighty river which iu recent years has been augmented by waters flowing.from the north; it winds for miles inside tb" city’s outer fortifications, purifying itself as ‘it goes, and would be therefore difficult to poison. Moscow’s four million people otter a night-and-day defence. Most of them have been trained in warfare; every apartment house is organized with root watchers and street guards. Moscow could put on history's most epoch-making siege. If it fell it be the heaviest single loss which tne Soviet forces could sustain. The war would pass at once to a different phase, to a last-ditch battle, with Russian guerrillas roving the whole expanse of European Russia, based on a main base behind the Urals. But the cost m men might break the German armies first. ■

Au instance of army needs taking priority of internal industrial requirements was shown in an appeal before fhe No. 4 Armed Forces Appeal Board, Wellington, where the Director of National Service withdrew his public interest appeal for a railway workshops coppersmith. The Crown representative, Mr. C. O. Bell, said this appeal had been withdrawn because tlie reservist’s services were urgently needed in the New Zealand Army Tank Corps. The reservist proceeded with a personal hardship appeal which was dismissed.