AFTER EIGHT WEEKS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 42, 18 August 1941, Page 6

AFTER EIGHT WEEKS

This is the beginning of the ninth week of Hitler's invasion of Russia. Though the German radio has denied the use, officially, of the word "blitzkrieg" to describe the enterprise, there is no doubt that its promoters intended and anticipated a "lightning campaign." According to good authority, there was talk in high military circles in Berlin, when the German massed forces, suddenly and without warning, plunged across the frontier on June 22, of "being in Moscow within ten days, or a. fortnight." This is a blitzkrieg time-table, based on past performances of the German war machine in Poland, Norway, Western Europe, and the Balkans, lightning campaigns, "according to plan," bringing great results quickly at comparatively small cost. Though the German High Command regularly speaks even now of operations in Russia proceeding "according to plan," it is obvious that the communiques this time do not tell the truth. If Hitler could have foreseen what his adventure in Russia would cost him in men and material for results far below anticipations, he would never have launched an attack that has imperilled all his past gains elsewhere in Europe. In two months he has not yet succeeded in reaching any one of the objectives —Moscow, Leningrad, and Kiev— openly proclaimed by the Germans themselves at the outset of the invasion.

But the failure of Hitler toi achieve the maximum of his aims in the East is no ground for easy optimism in the minds of those who are reduced by the force of circum* stance to the role, of spectators of j the gigantic struggle. Even the Russians admit that their enemy has made substantial progress. Ac* tually, the Germans have already occupied an area of Russia, including the recent acquisitions of that country, greater than the area of Germany as Hitler found it when lie came to power. It is true that the Russians so far have lost nothing vital to a continuance of the fight. The Germans are still a hundred miles from Leningrad, no nearer Moscow, and only a little nearer Kiev. They have not, apparently, either been able to penetrate to the shores of the Gulf of Finland and thus threaten the bases of the Soviet Baltic fleet. They are still far away from Murmansk, Russia's only ice-free Arctic port and the nearest point to access to British sea power. But in the eighth week of their campaign they have in the far south of Russia, near the shores of the Black Sea, had more important successes than in any previous week. Though the situation in this part of the Ukraine is still somewhat obscure, it seems clear enough that the Soviet commander here, Marshal Budenny, has had to withdraw some distance, leaving the great Black Sea port of Odessa, and, possibly, the smaller port of Nikolaiev, isolated. What is even more serious is the threat to Russia's main iron-ore supply at Krivoy-Rog in the bend of the Dnieper, and the great hydro-electric power-station of Dnepropetrovsk; one of the largest in the world, a little further east. The loss of these would be serious to Russia. It is uncertain yet whether Marshal Budenny will be able to de-l fend them successfully. Thus the military situation in Russia at the moment is more critical than ever. If Hitler succeeds in the Southern Ukraine—and there is that possibility—there is still time, be« fore the winter falls on Russia, jfor a further German penetration towards the Don Basin—the main Russian industrial centre —the strateI gically important Crimea, and the 'Caucasus. This is a contingency that cannot be ignored, though there is general confidence that Russia, having fought so well so far. can hold out till winter imposes its rigours on the combatants and afflicts the Nazis as it broke Napoleon in his retreat. The losses on both sides have been so heavy that they may have to dig in for the winter, exhausted, to wait for the spring. The report that the Germans are trying to collect fur coats for their troops seems to bear out the suggestion.