NEW RUSSIAN FRONT

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 54, 5 March 1942, Page 8

NEW RUSSIAN FRONT

A SERIES OF LOOPS

RUGBY, March 3. Russian policy, brilliantly designed and brilliantly executed during recent months, has resulted in the formation of a front far different from the "winter line" which the German High Command planned and hope to hold. The new front is described, with its strategical and tactical implications, in an expert summary. The front now appears to run in a series of loops as a result of the operations of the past three months. The Germans have been holding on doggedly to certain bastions, based on larger towns, while the Russians have been thrusting mainly with cavalry and ski patrols across country in between. Such pivots of German resistance have been the areas round Schlusselburg, Lake Ilmen, Rzhev, Mojaisk, [Orel, Kursk, Kharkov, Stalin, and. Taganrog. One bastion, Mojaisk, was captured by frontal and encircling attacks. Another, Staraya Russa, is surrounded and is being reduced. Rzhev is almost surrounded, and others are more or less threatened as the Russians enlarge and deepen their thrusts. The policy of retaining these strong points has certainly prevented any large-scale Russian drive towards central Europe, but it has not spared the Germans great losses of men and setbacks of morale, both of which they desire to conserve for a renewed spring campaign. GERMAN FEARS OF RETREAT. *, Latterly it appears that in order to hold up the Russian advance the Germans have been compelled to cling to the bastions even after the danger of encirclement becomes critical. The deduction may be drawn that they fear that any further retreats may cause the front to give way and jeopardise their main gains in the east. The result, in any case, has been very heavy losses in Staraya Russa, and the prospect of further sacrifices there and in the central pocket about Vyazma. The German strategy has been exploited by the Russians", • who have been able to keep up the pressure both against the bastions and in between. How far this strategy can be continued after the front has thawed and dried by the end of April is the subject of ' speculation. It is thought that by then the Russians will be well supplied with material by the factories transferred from areas to the east, and by British and American deliveries. In that case they should be better able to withstand the panzer divisions than last year, when they suffered a treacherous surprise and were relatively unfamiliar with the German tactics. APPROACH TO DNIEPER BEND. The Russians are now only 30 miles from the Dnieper. Bend, according to the Stockholm correspondent of the "Daily Telegraph." The Russians reoccupied nine localities 30 miles east of Dnepropetrovsk, and continue to advance. The Italians in this area were heavily defeated. The entire staff of one Italian divisional headquarters were either killed or taken prisoner. The Russians are reported to have again recaptured Theodosia and also an important town in the Rzhev district after a battle in which 1100 Germans were killed and much booty captured. According to Moscow radio, the ring around the German army at Staraya Russa is tightening and the Germans are being wiped out. POSITION OF BELEAGUERED GERMANS. "The Times" correspondent at Stockholm says that weekend optimism in Berlin concerning relief for the beleaguered army is markedly yielding to a less confident mood as it is realised that the Russians have managed to establish strong new positions against the beleaguered troops and the relieving troops from Estonia. The Wilhelmstrasse considers that the beleaguered men do not lack ammunition, but admits that the food position is serious,' because the Russians in the opening phase of the battle captured a number of wellstocked depots. - The German food deliveries by air are insignificant compared with the amount required for the 90,000 troops there. There is good reason to believe that parts of the railway between the Dno and Sokolniki junctions have been captured or are under Russian fire. The Wilhelmstrasse gives some idea of the extent to which parachutists have been thrown in as infantry to stiffen the resistance around Leningrad by stating that parachutists have defeated 12 Russian divisions in constant fighting since the end of January. The German use of parachutists indicates the importance the High Command attaches to the Ilussian attempts to break out of Leningrad. The diversion of the parachutists must seriously diminish the limited supply of such specialists for use in the spring offensive. Day temperatures all along the front are rising, and the spring thaw is not far distant, but the night frosts during the next few weeks are expected to make the packed snow more negoI liable - for Eussiaa. gle.dge: Jtr agi^ _~