BOAST BY HITLER

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 83, 4 October 1941, Page 9

BOAST BY HITLER

MAIN TASK NOW

ACHIEVED

WHOLE CONTINENT IN REICH'S* SERVICE

LONDON, October 3. Hitler broadcast for an hour today fromi Berlin to the German people and the peoples of the occupied territories. He declared that Russia had already been broken and that the chief task of the German armies on the eastern front had been achieved in the main. He proclaimed that everything had gone according to plan, and claimed that the German armies had "taken 2,500,000 Russian prisoners, destroyed 22,000 guns and 18,000 tanks, and shot down 14,500 planes. He admitted that he had been astonished at the strength of Russia. He had no idea how gigantic the preparations of the enemy were. "We just missed the possibility of the destruction not only of Germany but of the whole of Europe," he .declared. Hitler introduced his speech by saying that for the last "24 hours gigantic operations had been in progress on the

Russian front which would help to defeat the enemy in the East, and twice in his speech he used the phrase "when one day this war is over." Hitler declared that during August and September last year one thing was becoming clear—a decision in the west with* England which would have needed the whole of the German Luftwaffe was no longer possible. Germany's relations with Japan were continually improving, he declared, and a particularly cordial friendship united him to the leaders of Fascist Italy. « Hitler boasted openly of how he was forcing Europe to work for Germany, and said he had put a whole continent into the service of the Reich. Behind the Russian front a new German administration had already been set up, and should the war last a long.time it would be of great value to Germany and her allies. "We knew how to organise these conquered areas," he said. , , ' A speech by Dr. Goebbels introduced Hitler's broadcast. Goebbels revealed some of the results of R.A.F. raids on Germany, and said that the Germans had evacuated half a million children and over 100,000 mothers from very dangerous areas. More than 2000 special, trains .were needed to carry these people to safety.