NOTES ON THE WAR NEWS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 77, 27 September 1941, Page 10

NOTES ON THE WAR NEWS

FOURTEEN WEEKS

STRUGGLE IN RUSSIA

PRESENT SITUATION

Fourteen weeks have now passed since Hitler attacked Russia with

the full strength of the great "Deutsche Wehrmacht" in the expectation of crushing Soviet resis-

tance long before the advent of winter. The Germans had every advantage of preparation and planning carried out with their

customary care and thoroughness. They chose their time and invaded Russia without warning. They have accomplished much since, but, with one exception, have failed of their main objectives. And the winter is now not far off.

Under all the conditions and circumstances of the terrific campaign since June 22 the Russians have done exceedingly well. They have lost much territory, including ( half the-Ukraine, with its capital, Kiev. Two of their principal cities, Leningrad and Odessa, have been besieged for some weeks, with the fiercest intensity. The important area of the Don Basin, with the great city of Kharkov, is threatened, and-the approaches, to the strategic peninsula of the Crimea have been attacked. Losses in men and material . h. ye been heavy. On the other hand, the Germans have suffered at. least , equal losses and have paid dearly for every objective, major or minor, attained. So severe have been the German losses that the Nazis are combing Europe for labour to replace Germans sent to the front, have demandedmilitary help—most reluctantly given —from Axis partners, and are how trying to force Bulgaria into war in order to secure the use of the Bulgarian army. By contrast, Russia's allies and friends, Britain and America, have difficulty in getting help through because the main and shortest routes to Russia are either blocked or commanded by strategic positions seized by Germany as a preliminary to an attack on Russia. Round Murmansk. 4 The present position of the long Russian front from Murmansk in the Arctic to the Crimea in the Black Sea seems to be this: In the Far North round Murmansk tin German__ and Austrians, mainly, "alpine" troops from the army of occupation in Norway, have been repulsed after repeated attacks helped by divebombers. Here the R.A.F. with its fighters has intervened with signal success. This seems to indicate that Britain is determined to see that Murmansk, Russia's only ice-free port in the Arctic, and the nearest to Britain and the Atlantic coast of North America, shall be retained and kept open as a port of access for supplies to Russia. These are carried mainly by the Murmansk-Leningrad railway, which at two points, Kandalaksha, on an arm of the White Sea, and Petrozavodsk on Lake Onega, has been threatened by the Finns. A warning has been issued by Britain, to Finland. Leningrad Stands. ' Leningrad has again and again been savagely assaulted by yon Leeb's German armies, " but -'the Germans have yet: to penetrate the real defences of. the city. Here also the R.A.F. is helping to repel air attacks and the Germans have no' mastery of the air. Leningrad is not entirely cut off from communication'• with the south, and Marshal Voroshilov's forces based on the Valdai Hills are harassing yon Leeb's right flank and covering the approaches to Moscow from the northwest. The latest reports make; it clear that the Germans have not succeeded in capturing Oesel, the large island at . the mouth of the Gulf of Riga and . close to the entrance to the Gulf of Finland, which. is valuable as an air base to Russia and, with Hango and Kronstadt, vital to the Russian Baltic fleet. In the centre Marshal Timoshenko in the vicinity of Smolensk is keeping the Germans on the defensive, but rapid progress of the Russian counterattack,/ developing into a counteroffensive, will depend on the success of Russian' movements further north to threaten the German rear. There has also been mention over the air of Russian forces near Gomel, the town on the Middle Dnieper from which the Germans struck south through Cher- • nigov to meet yon Rundstedt's army advancing from Kremenchug to encircle Kiev. This seems to show that Moscow/ at any rate, is in no danger. Serious in the South. It is south of this point that the Germans have made their most serious* inroad into the heart of' Russia on the road, to the. industrial centre of the Don Basin and south-eastwards towards the oilfields of the Caucasus. There is a difference of opinion as to the proportion of the .army defending Kiev Marshal Budenny has been able to extricate from Rundstedt's encirclement. Russian circles in Stockholm consider that Budenny saved - threequarters of the total forces between Kiev and Kremenchug, but lost 200,000 men, or about twelve divisions. The picture of "weary, shattered divisions" regrouping in front of Kharkov may be true enough after their ordeal in and around Kiev. The hope- then is that Budenny will be able to defend a - line from Kharkov south to. Rostov, at the mouth of the Don on the Sea. of Azov. It is vital that this line should be defended, for it coyers the Don Basin, which still, despite developments elsewhere, is Russia's chief industrial centre. It is in this direction that the Germans begin to approach a point where Allied supplies through Iran (Persia) will become immediately/ useful, and possibly, Allied reinforcements in actual troops might be able to intervene, as" nowhere else on the front. Speed, as a Russian spokesman in Iran has pointed out, is a prime factor, for Southern Russia is a practically treeless steppe, making for swift movement. M. Maisky's injunction against depending too much on "General Winter" < and "General Mud" might well be taken to. heart. It must not be forgotten that- the Russo-Finnish war of 1939-40 was fought entirely in winter, beginning and ending in winter, and that it was by no means a war of inaction. Russia's civil wars (1918-20) did not stop for the winter. The Germans have ample forced labour to keep aerodromes open and road and rail clear. Operations will slow down and tactics will change, but it is unlikely that the war will come to a complete standstill.