"INDEFINITE RETREAT"

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 40, 17 February 1943, Page 5

"INDEFINITE RETREAT"

German Official Comment

* (Rec. 9 a.m.) LONDON, Feb. 16. I "An indefinite German retreat in the vast Russian spaces may be necessary before equilibrium can be restored against the vastly L superior enemy, said the German High Command spokesman, General Dietmar, in a broadcast. "The • balance against the Russian numerical superiority can only be restored by gradually bringing up - reserves which are arriving. A war of attrition is going on, and it will continue until the enemy is annihilated."

:■■■.; time more important to them than to • ...--* the Nazis. The Russians cannot afford to let the Germans rebuild their armies. And mark this —the Red Army does not intend to destroy itself. • "The Nazis might have to commit "semi-suicide, but the Red Army will remain—a strong force, intact, to be used in the settlement of this war. The Red Army, as such, will be the .- strongest political force in Europe." ". Mr. Farson expressed the opinion - - that the main objective of the Red ' "'■ ' Army is to strike the Nazis a mortal -•'-blow at the least possible cost to the Russians—the objective being the - - Dniester River. He forecasts that the -Russians intend to bomb the Ploesti into uttec uselessness. « ■- Lieut.-Colonel J. R. Kennedy, in the '■"Daily Express," expresses the opinion that the Russians intend to advance to V*." Riga, and that the Germans may retreat to the Riga-Odessa line, which .. they could hold with 200 divisions, with others to form a powerful mobile ■- ..reserve. He says that one of Russia's handicaps is that she is linked to the old and new factories in the Urals by .■- ; a few railways, comprising only two • double tracks, which cannot suffice for X too ambitious offensives by armies, of .. _ millions, and that the load on these railways will not be eased until the recaptured mines and factories start - ••' again.

GERMANS' GREAT CHANCE. "If the Germans go back io their own frontier months may elapse before the Russians could mount a serio.i__ attack against them. It is oa

these months that Germany will count to regain her breath. That is her supreme chance and our great danger. Russia says that Germany has already sent many divisions from Western Europe to the Eastern Front. We can see how difficult it would be for Germany to meet any attack in the west now or during that critical period when she is moving back to a shorter line but thereafter the problem will be simpler. Opportunity seems to be knocking at our door just as our leaders are talking of a great Allied offensive."