THE RUSSIAN WINTER

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 123, 20 November 1941, Page 10

THE RUSSIAN WINTER

STRAIN ON NAZI RESOURCES

The gigantic preparations which Germany is making for wintering in Russia were recently described by the Berlin correspondent of the Swiss newspaper "Basler Nachrichten." As examples of the strain on production he mentions some interesting figures. Some 250,000,000 boxes of matches are delivered to the German troops monthly. In the first winter [of ■ the war 4,250,000 candles were consumed, and the figure /will be much greater in the coming winter. The so-called Hindenburg light, which is a species of saucer filled with paraffin, has become very popular Of these lights 5,500,000 were delivered in the first winter of the war. Arrangements have now been made to manufacture 18,000,000 monthly. Carbide lamps, which had been almost entirely replaced by electric, are now mass-produced.

One out of the three blankets issued to every German soldier in Norway, Rumania, and Poland has been withdrawn for dispatch to the Russian front. They were originally issued with two, the normal issue being one, but a third was found necessary- The demands.from Russia, however, override all else.

The correspondent points out that a tremendous strain has already been put on the German railway system owing to the necessity of getting vast quantities of essential commodities to the Eastern Fi*ont before snow and frost set in.

German civilians are already visualising shivering days and nights, as the army's demands have swept every remaining vestige of warm clothes from the market. "A Siberian winter" has become a stock phrase in Germany.