NOTES ON THE WAR NEWS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 15, 19 January 1943, Page 4

NOTES ON THE WAR NEWS

SCHLUSSELBURG

RELIEF OF LENINGRAD?

Not in the south of Russia, but in the north, is Russia's greatest victory of the day announced. This is the fall of the redoubtable Axis bastion of Schlusselburg to the Red Army. Schlusselburg, at the point of exit of the River Neva from Lake Ladoga and a strategic position of the highest importance, was captured by the Germans in their 1941 summer offensive against Leningrad. Its capture completed the Axis cordon round the south of the second city of the Soviet

Union. The Red Army twice attempted its recapture—in the winter counter-offensive of 1941-42 and in August, 1942 —in vain. This time they have succeeded.

The consequences of the fall of Schlusselburg to the Soviet soldiers may be profound. In the first place it should permit the reopening of communications by road and rail between Leningrad and the rest of Russia. For over a year the only way into and out of Leningrad was across Lake Ladoga by ferry in the summer and over the ice in the winter—a source of supply inadequate to the needs of this great Russian city. The railways from Murmansk and Archangel enter Leningrad along the south shore of Lake Ladoga, past Schlusselburg. The triangle between the mouth of the Volkhov River, Sinyavino, and Schlusselburg was one of the greatest of all the Axis "hedgehogs" in Russia and the bastion of the j northern end of their main front running from Ladoga to the Caucasus. It is really the first of the great "hedgehogs" to go, others having defied all I Soviet efforts. Rzhev, Vyasma, Orel, Kursk, and Kharkov were others. Velikie Luki would rank as one, but ; its neighbours, Sokolniki and Neval, on the Leningrad-Odessa lateral railway, are probably more important. Smolensk and Bryansk are also great centres of German resistance still to be overcome. In the south the fall of Millerovo opens up an important railway network leading to the Donets Basin. ■ , „ _, _. •«. It may be taken therefore that with Schlusselburg in the hands of the Red Army Leningrad is relieved of the worst effects of partial siege. If j the strong Axis line of the Volkhov •River between Lakes Ladoga and Ilmen should fall as a consequence of the loss of Schlusselburg the Lenin-grad-Moscow main railway line may be reopened, and Leningrad resume its share in Russian war life as an offensive as well as a defensive base, with Kronstadt and the Soviet Baltic fleet operative when the ice melts in the spring. But before this happens heavy fighting may be necessary to the south of Leningrad. x Schlusselburg paves the way to success. Allies in Africa. With the swift advance of the Eighth Army into the more fertile regions of Tripolitania round the capital and port of Tripoli the Allied armies in North Africa have made a useful step towards converging on the last Axis stronghold in the Dark Continent. The oujfook is improving all the time and it may be possible at last to trap Rommel before he gets out of Tripolitania and joins the other Axis forces in Tunisia. The direction, attributed to the Eighth Army, west instead ot north-west, should help to a junction with the Fighting French coming up from the Fezzan and the North African French forces advancing from Ghadames. The impression is of a ring, forming round the Axis positions in North Africa and contracting as it moves in towards the centre. The key to the. whole situation is air power, and so far this is with the Allies oyer most of the front, the Axis being prominent only around Bizerta and Tunis. ■ Veteran's Birthday. The ninetieth birthday of General lan Hamilton, announced in the news today as being celebrated at his home with a party, including Lord Gort and Mrs Churchill, brings back memories of a typical old British soldier, a competent general, who had his share of ill luck. Before the last war he visited New Zealand and inspected our forces camped then at Takapau. The weather was very wet and Sir lan was unfavourably impressed—with the weather. He surprised a meeting held one evening in a room of the Show Ground buildings at Palmerston North at the time of the Winter Show by quoting some verses he had written about Takapau—he modestly admitted a habit of versifying. The only line one can remember over the* years was the' refrain—"lt always rains at Takapau." He seemed a cheery old soul even then. He was unlucky at Galnpoli. With better luck at Suvla Bay he might have succeeded and been acclaimed a great general. Incidentally, Ernest Hemingway, of "Farewell to Arms" fame, has edited an "omnibus collection of observations from various sources —over a thousand pages—entitled "Men at War." He quotes General "Bonny" Fuller's story of Gallipoli, which ended with the statistical climax: , nn nnn "In all 410,000 British and 70,000 French soldiers had been landed, of whom 252,000 were killed, wounded, missing, prisoners, died of disease, or evacuated sick." The ratio of losses at Dieppe, comments Hemingway, was just about that of Gallipoli, which ought to prove something about frontal assaults from the sea.