NAZI STRENGTH

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 19, 23 January 1943, Page 5

NAZI STRENGTH

STILL FORMIDABLE

DRIVE AT RUSSIA IN SPRING?

(Rec. noon.) LONDON, Jan. 22. According to Swiss reports, Germany will use the last reserves of Axis man-power in Europe to form an army for a spring offensive against Russia. The "Daily Telegraph's" Berne correspondent estimates the strength of this army at 250 divisions—about 3,500,000 men. The army will be raised in Germany. Hitler hopes to pull the rest from his satellites. The Fuhrer still hopes to raise 12 divisions from Rumania. Under a new Government decree all Rumanians | living abroad must return by February 2 "for military service. Defiance of this decree is punishable by death and confiscation of all property. Dispatches from American correspondents in Russia declare that it would be over-optimistic to imagine, that German strength is waning to the \ point where further Nazi offensives in Russia next spring would be impossible. The "bNew York Evening Post's" Moscow correspondent says that the Soviet communiques since the beginning of the offensive in November have listed 22 Nazi divisions as trapped before Stalingrad, but these represent only one-twelfth of the Nazi armies. Hitler still has probably 216 German divisions, plus 33 divisions belonging to his allies. Of these, five German divisions are occupied in i Africa, 150 in Russia, and the remainder are in reserve. Washington observers understand that Russia has recently been bringing a certain amount of pressure to bear on England and America seeking a greater diversion of German strength to other fronts so as to husband Russian resources in men and material.