PARCELLING UP GOES ON

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 121, 17 February 1944, Page 5

PARCELLING UP GOES ON

Trapped Germans In

Kanev Pocket

HALF LIQUIDATED (By Telegraph.—Press assu.—Copyright.) LONDON. February 15. Herded in the last remaining socket in the south-west corner of the Kanev tran. the remnants of the German divisions are struggling to hold on from hour to hour, says Reuters Moscow correspondent. „ nn The trap has shrunk to about 200 square miles from the original 1000. The Soviet artillery continues to rain shells against - the exhausted enemy, while fresh artillery is rushed up to the main front to check the panzer re iffiough V tiie last German positions 'are crumbling every hour,. General von Mannstein has not yet given up hope ot rescuing his comrades. He is now onlj 15 miles from them, and is swinging ms panzer battering-ram in a new tierce effort to break through from the outside., and is throwing in wave after wave O'tanks and men in savage attacks, xne German dent driven into the Soviet positions has, however, come at a time when the whole defence system of the encircled Germans is falling to pieces. ' The capture of Korsun means that the toughest obstacle in the grim parcellingup process has been overcome, and may indicate the complete wiping out ot tuu northern group ot Germans m the .pocket. Any further success von Mannstein may achieve will be too late for any but prestige purposes. There can be no question of rescuing the entrapped forces. The Russians counted 20,000 German dead in the part of the “island” already captured, and it is estimated that at least 30,000 more have been killed and wounded inside the German-held are*:. With the total of prisoners added, it seems probable that a good half of General Stemmerman’s original force has already been liquidated. The correspondent quotes the “Red Star” as saying that the area the Germans occupy u ..“literally flowing with blood under the blows of the Red Army.” “The Russians north of Svenigorodka and Shpola continued rhe fighting for the liquidation of the encircled enemy groups and, tightening the ring, occupies several strongly fortified centres of resistance,” says tonight's Moscow communique. “The Russians simultaneously north-west of Svenigorodka successfully repelled tank and infantry attacks aimed at relieving the surrounded troops.”

BATTLE OF WITS AND WEAPONS German Plan To Stall Off Enemies

(By Telegraph.—Preso Assn.—Copyright.) (British Official Wireless.) LONDON, February. 15. What is Germany’s plan,today to stall off her enemies? asks Mr. J. C. Garvin. “Ou the eastern side, the plan is to sell ground for time, and to sell it as slowly and dearly as they can. On the western side, the Germans mean to concentrate everything they have and know off an attempt of supreme desperation not merely to frustrate and defeat’ the second front but to bring it to disaster. They hope to draw more reinforcements from the eastern trout in the spring months, when even the Russians are usually immobilized by an ocean of mud.” It will, he odds, be a battle of wita. weapons and weight. The “Observer” secs Germany’s plan rather differently. It suggests that Hitler lias decided to try to hold oft the western Powers at all costs, even at the cost of defeat at the hands of Russia. “His aim is to force the western Powers to terms by the threat of letting. Ihe Russians conquer Germany while he holds on to France and Italy. Thus far the cost to him of backing up the bluff by military action has not been too heavy.” The “Observer” adds - that Hitler's, highest hope obviously still is that Britain and America could not face the aspect of the Red Army inarching to the Rhine and would rather come to term" with Nazi Germany. It also says that a Russian invasion is viewed in Germany with frank terror, from which Hitler might well hope to extract the last effort of desperate resistance. But it is just here that his speculation may most easily turn against him. “By deliberately choosing a Russian rather than a British-American invasion, Hitler would for the first time set himself against the unanimous will of Germany. not just of a scattered and power lcs« political opposition, but of viituallv the whole nation. Here is the gaping weakness in Hitler’s last great gamble. When his bluff ,is called, as it will be, it may speed his downfall as nothing else could.”