NOTES ON THE WAR NEWS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 154, 28 December 1942, Page 4

NOTES ON THE WAR NEWS

VITAL TO ALLIES 1

RUSSIA'S ARCTIC FRONT?

The main news today affecting1 ♦ the general progress of the war comes still from Russia, for there , is a lull on the North African; battlefront due to heavy rain in Tunisia. No great change is re-, corded from the Far East. The at r tack on Burma by the Allies has not yet developed into a major offensive, though it may do so; and operations in the South-west Pad-, fie are largely confined to the air and to the savage fighting against the remnants of the Japanese on the Papuan coastal strip. Th« eyes of the world are focused on : the Red Army's Middle Don offensive, which shows no signs of slackening. .1 This advance sduthward in the direction of Rostov is the most formidable threat to their occupation of . southern Russia the Germans have yet had to face. They> recognise its full seriousness. On the Allied side it should never! be forgotten how much bf^ the Russian success in the south is due to the tenacity with which the Russians have clung to their positions in the far north, covering the ports.of Murmansk and Archangel and rendering possible the transport ;of huge quantities of supplies and material of war from the outer world to the Russian fronts. British tanks are reported as taking part in the Middle Bon offensive; almost certainly they- cams into Russia via the Arctic convoy route, the channel of by far the greater part of the1 Allied material help'"to Russia. This Arctic Front of Russia has seldom figured prominently in.the; news, but when the .history of the, war comes to be written its defence against odds through the long winter1 night and the brief summer day will take its proper place. - -^ J Way to Murmansk. r ; During this brief summer—really only about two months when the suu is warm enough to tan the troops-^the Germans under General Dietl were in September of this year expected* "to make a final effort to clear the Russians out of the Rybachi Peninsula "atfd open;the way to Murmansk. The atftack failed to materialise, as several divisions, including Austrian' mountain troops, it is.believed, were transferred to the south for the Axis Caucasus drive. There was «ome fighting in the Arctic, however, /in, which the Russian garrison,l--; whichY had held its ground for fourteen: months, captured German prisoners with roubles in their possession, ;giveii them to spend in the Murmansk shopsHero of the Arctic. v; ;' The defence of the Russian North, from Rybachi to Bering Strait, ax> cording to the Moscow correspondent of the "New York Times," Ralph Eafcker, is commanded by Vice-Admiral Goloyky, of the Red Fleet. He is a 36-year-old Cossack, highly cultured and possessing a profound knowledge of naval history. He has the liveliness of wit of the Southerner and is unaffected in his relations with his mien. Admiral Golovky not only commands surface and submarine fleets—the submarines are reported to have bagged 700,000 tons of enemy shipping in fifteen months—but also has\ strong marine forces operating ashqre, manning coastal batteries and ' holding lines protecting- Murmansk and Arch-. angel. Inmost sectors the war. in the north has been positional in character, though relatively large-scale operations were carried out by -the Russians last May under conditions made unexpectedly difficult by one jof the heaviest snowfalls ever recorded in the region. ■ X.>~. Life in the Par North. : ; ,But there has tyeen no abatement'in the tension between the opposing forces on the Rybachi Peninsula; The Russian hold on that mountainous, steep-cliffed region is particularly embarrassing to the Germans, since the western coast commands the entrance to Petsamo Fiord and . the Russians have heavy batteries on/the coast. For fourteen months the' Germans have tried' to reduce the Soviet garrison, which maintains contact with the mainland by small cutters and seaplanes! Bpmbing is frequent and there ■is;'xa lively exchange of grenades between front-line trenches dug in rock, often H only a score of yards apart. ,'■'.- Life on the front within the Arctic Circle is of a stern character,' but travellers who have returned recently say that the Russians there are in high fighting spirit. At meetings and in letters to their commanders, the men urge active operations, and whenever --theopportunities for fighting do arise they go to it with fury. /... ■• ■'■- A coastal battery under Commander Panachevny is still defending Russia's original western frontiers, for in'its sector neither army has budged an inch since the war began, and the frontier barrier is still down. Panachevny has trained an Arctic hare to keep the remote battery company. For about two months of the year the weather is warm enough for the men of the battery to'become sun-tanned, but for the greater part of the year they are muffled in, furs. Convoys in Port. Town life is very different and much influenced by the arrival of convoys, which often bring several thousand British and American merchant marine and navy men. Even at Murmansk, on which the Germans have concentrated bombing attacks, : visitors found "that dancing continued in the ruined House of Culture and that meals were served in a damaged hotel. At Archangel the social life of British and American seamen centres on the International Club,. the scene of political debates, dramatic performances, and concerts. This Arctic front of Russia has been hitherto a defensive front, but it 'need not remain so. If there is an Axis col': lapse in Southern Russia, an advance by the Red Army may be expected in the north into Finland and across, the Finnish Arctic corridor to Norway Narvik. This would be the beginning of the liberation of Norway and the opening of a second front in the West with the Allies co-operating from: the sea." ' v. . ■