VALUE OF CRIMEA

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 107, 1 November 1941, Page 9

VALUE OF CRIMEA

SPRINGBOARD FOR THE

CAUCASUS

(Rec. 10 a.m.) LONDON, Oct. 31

"The Times" correspondent on the German frontier, says that the significance of the German penetration in the Crimea Mes in the fact that Sebastopol must in the near future become a new focus for military operations. As long as it is able to draw support from the sea,'Sebastoppl, like Leningrad and Odessa, is expected to prove difficult to capture, if not impregnable, especially as the Russians will defend it to the death, recognising that the fall of Sebastopol would irreparably cripple Russian freedom for naval action in the Black Sea. The Germans have no considerable naval forces in the Black Sea, but once in possession of the Crimean airports they could unceasingly dive-bomb Batum and the Russian naval units. The supreme value of the Crimea to the Germans, however, would be its utility as a springboard for airborne troops against the Caucasus, with which bridgeheads could be formed at the eastern end of the' Black Sea.