NOTES ON THE WAR NEWS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 107, 1 November 1941, Page 10

NOTES ON THE WAR NEWS

RACING WINTER

GERMANS IN RUSSIA

THE "FINAL BATTLE"

November, by general agreement,

marks the onset of

winter in

Russia, and today is the first of November. For the last few weeks the German armies havte pushed

their efforts in a crescendo of / desperation to reach a decision of the conflict, which has now lasted nineteen weeks, before winter

settles over the whole of the vast

Russian plain. Time daily grows shorter and the conflict rages ever more fiercely, with German gains here and there, dearly bought, but with Russian resistance still unbroken:

For both sides these are the most critical days in the long-drawn-out crisis of the Eastern Front, in which there has never been an "all quiet" in the nineteen weeks of battle. The crisis is shifting southward with the approaching winter. No fighting is reported north of Leningrad and the initiative at Leningrad itself, after a two months' siege, is passing to the defenders, who in determined sorties are endeavouring to recover bridgeheads over the Neva and push the enemy further away from positions threatening the defences of the city. Sporadic fighting with the' Russians mainly on the offensive breaks out [along the German line down to Novigorod and Lake Ihnen. From that i point south the position is obscure, but apparently the front runs from Staraya Russa, on the southern shores of the ilake, round the western slopes of the Valdai Hills along the Upper Volga from its source to Rztiev and Kalinin, both on the Volga, which here takes a wide sweep to the north.

Battle for Moscow.

Rzhev and Kalinin ■ mark the northern bounds of the battle for Moscow. Beyond Kalinin the Germans, with all their efforts, have been unable to advance even after over ten days' fighting. From Rzhev they have delivered a new thrust towards Moscow, which has reached the village of Vblokor lamsk, roughly 70 miles from .the Kremlin. From that point the Moscow front runs slightly east of south to Mojaisk, on Napoleon's road to Moscbw and the scene of heavy fighting for over a week. Mojaisk is,about 40 miles from the outskirts of" the Russian capital. A few miles south of Mojaisk the Germans have forced the Russians back to Naro Fominsk on the Nara River, a tributary of the Oka, the lines of both of which have been stubbornly defended by the Red army. This is the nearest point to Moscow yet reached by the enemy, and the distance is riot more than 40 miles. Further-south is Malo Yaroslavets,, another battle-; ground, where on October, 24,. 1812r— almost the same day of the same month —Napoleon, moving out of Moscow to secure his retreat through the fertile undevastated regibn of Kaluga, was thoroughly worsted by Kutusov and forced back on the Vyasma-Smolensk road, by w f hich .he had marched on [ Moscow an& which was now '-"scorched earth." . -; :/ ■ . .'■.'"■ .' -: .' ■''. :

Denting the Semi-circle.

From Malo Yaroslavets the line follows the Oka River held by the Russians to a point near Orel, where the Germans have a bridgehead > from which they are now thrusting towards Tula. .Thus the operations -. of the week have brought about no further encirclement of Moscow, the eastern limits being still Kalinin and Orel,'but the semi-circle that joined these two to the west has been dented fairly deeply in the centre. Moscow is therefore exposed for the present only to frontal.attacks, which must be cost-v ly to the enemy, and to short-range air bombardment striking' at the civilian population ©f the capital and public and private buildings. The situation of Moscow is no worse than it was.. . . .'" '■'.■■ -V ' * ■":. '

Kharkov Tllrust

From near Tula south to Kharkov there are practically no indications, by place-names in the news, of where the actual front is. It must be assumed from the lack of any German claims in this area that the line takes a bend to the west of Kursk, striking the Donets Valley at Kharkov. Kharkov, now evacuated -by the Russians, marks for the moment the northern limit of the Ukraine-Donets Nazi offensive. Kharkov, the capital of the Eastern Ukraine, a great manufacturing city, the "Birmingham of Russia," is a' ser'ious*loss to the Soviet, .probably the most serious yet in 'the present conflict.

Hitler's Objective!

From Kharkov vori Rundstedt's advance has probably reached the Donets River nearly all the way • down '■:, to Taganrog at its mouth in the.. Sea. of Azov. Between the Donets arid the Don lies Russia's most important industrial region. Natural defensive lines are few, and Marshal Timoshenko will have a most difficult job to hold this vital region. It is here that the Germans have made their most important advances since the beginning of the invasion on June 22 and here the Russians have-lost the most. It might be said that if the Germans could secure and hold Russia west of a line drawn ftom Leningrad past Moscow, to the Volga at [Stalingrad and down to the Caspian Sea at the mouth of the Volga, Hitler would have got all he wanted, wheatlands, oilfields and coal, iron ore', bauxite and manganese. The Russians could have the rest, including Moscow and Leningrad. At Kharkov and near Rostov the Germans are already more than half-way to these objectives. But to get. further than they are now they must take Rostov arid conquer the Crimea." The position in both areas is serious, but the prospects of successful resistance by the Russians are improving.

Two Factors.

There are two factors in the military situation—one known, the other unknown, to the outside world. The first is the weather and winter. Winter campaigns are possible as the Russo-Finnish war showed, but there the numbers on both sides were comparatively small and ttie problem of supply practicable. It is a different matter to supply armies of millions along a thousand-mile front in'a Russian winter. Moreover, the evidence is that the Germans are neither prepared nor equipped for a winter campaign, and the Russians are1. The other, and unknown, factor is the relative strength of the armies today. The German claim to have destroyed threequarters of the Russian armies is ridiculous, but an advancing army will inevitably take more, prisoners than an army retreating. On the other hand, an attacking army, trying in vain to reach a decision, will almost as inevitably suffer severer casualties in the field. Nowhere have the Russians met with overwhelming disaster and there are no signs whatever of weakening On the whole, the odds are on the Russians. . -