COMING SECOND FRONT

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 102, 1 May 1943, Page 6

COMING SECOND FRONT

ORDER OF DAY BY STALIN

LONDON, April 30. In an order of the day Premier Stalin has foreshadowed a second front in Europe. He issued a dramatic order foreshadowing victory over the Germans through simultaneous blows from the east and from the west. The course of the war was already changed, he said, and the conditions of victory created. He summarised the achievements of the winter offensive and the German failure to stage revenge for Stalingrad. "At the same time," he said, "the victorious troops of our allies have defeated the Axis in Libya and Tripolitania. They continue to rout them in Tunis, while the gallant Anglo-American air forces inflict devastating blows on German and Italian centres of industry, foreshadowing the formation of a second front in Europe. Thus, the blows against the enemy from the east by the Red Army, for the first time since the outbreak of war, have merged with the blows from the west by our allies into one common blow. Ail this, taken together, has shaken the very foundations of Hitler's war machine." The effect on Germany was critical, he said. Instead of talking of blitzkrieg, there was more and more talk of peace. Germany had the impudence to hope that either Russia or Britain and America might abandon their ally and fall into this trap. Was it not clear that only the complete defeat and unconditional surrender of Germany could leave Europe in peace? Though Germany was shaken, she was not defeated. Two or three more blows were needed from the west and from the east such as had been dealt during the last five or six months to make the catastrophe for Germany a fact. Mr. Stalin concluded: "Comrades, the enemy has already felt the strength of shattering blows delivered by our troops. The time is near when the Red Army, together with the army of our allies, will break the back of German might."