GERMANY DRAWING ON RESERVES

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 97, 20 January 1944, Page 5

GERMANY DRAWING ON RESERVES

Statement By Dietmar (By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.) LONDON, January 18. Berlin radio’s military commentator, General Dietmar, said the High Command would have to fully employ its reserve to meet the Russian onslaught. The Russians would not hesitate to throw in their last man to' achieve final success. “There is nothing left for us but to meet the enemy’s strategy with the same ruthless exploitation of our reserves,” he said. “Military history offers few examples of such a drive toward a decision as we are witnessing in Russia. The perils and risks of such a drive certainly do not count so much with the Russians, who can reply that numerical superiority and the Red Army’s abundance of manpower and materia! are employed in an attempt to force a quick decision, and for the last few weeks it has looked as if they would come •■•ather near their goal. “I have already stressed the gravity of the situation resulting from the Red Army’s breaches of Zhitomir, Berdichev, Vinnitsa, Korosten, Novograd Volynsk, and Sarny. “The employment of German reserves has opened up the prospect of a turn in the situation. I use the words ‘opened up the prospect’ deliberately. I do pot say more.” Other German commentators are no more optimistic. Hallensleben, of the official news agency, says that the battle between Lake Ilmen and Leningrad is assuming larger proportions every day. The Russians south of Oranienbaum, after considerable fighting, threw in tankborne rifle divisions to effect a breakthrough. -