NOTES ON THE MR

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 121, 18 November 1943, Page 4

NOTES ON THE MR

RUSSIA ROLLS ON

THE PRIPET AREA

Steady degeneration of the German I positions in the southern portions of the front in Russia continues. There are two especially bad patches, one surrounding Zhitomir, west of Kiev, and the other in the great area enclosed by the bend of the Dnieper. In the latter, a renewed Russian offensive around Krivoi Rog has been mentioned on some days in the German news, but not in the Russian reports until today. The Zhitomir operations promise important results. When the Russians seized Zhitomir, the effect was to cut the direct railway from the north to Odessa, traversing the Pi-ipet Marshes via Mozir (on the Pripet River) and Korosten. But it did not destroy the usefulness of the railway altogether, because the network of lines gave a route from Korosten to the south-west and back again to the main line at Berdichev. The assault on Korosten is designed to destroy this by-pass route. That done, the enemy will have no north-south access of practical value except one about 100 miles further to the west. Attack on a Myth. Accompanying this attack 'on the enemy's arterial system is the push from the Korosten area towards the Pripet Marshes, to push the Germans into as much discomfort as possible. The use of marshland in this way recalls the famous battle of Tannenburg, in East Prussia, in 1914, when the Germans inflicted a severe defeat upon the Russians in the Masurian Lakes. This victory was attributed to the longsightedness of Field-Marshal yon Hindenburg, who was said' to have made a lifelong study of the strategy he employed and to have resisted proposals to drain the marshes so that he could carry out the plan. This theory is declared by Otto Strasser, i one-time associate and now sworn i enemy of Hitler, to be a first-class myth, built up to enhance Hindenburg's reputation. In fact, he declares in his b"ook, "History in My Time," Hindenburg did not fight the battle; Ludendorff did. Hindenburg did not even hold a command in East Prussia. He d,id not study the lake district, except from the viewpoint of a duckshooter. He did not oppose the draining of the area; no such proposal was made. Moreover. Strasser declared, the Masurian Lakes are not marshes. There seems to be no doubt that the Pripet Marshes are. Ingenious Invention. Among the devices carried in aircraft to save the lives of men forced down at sea are fabric "dinghies," which fold up into a compact parcel, and are blown up (by compressed gas) into circular rafts able to support several men. These dinghies are equipped with emergency rations and other necessaries; even small portable radio transmitters are carried. But the dinghies are very awkward to navigate, owing to their circular shape. To propel them with a paddle is an exasperating and exhausting exercise, and they have very limited sailing qualities. Recently a very ingenious propelling gear for such craft has been pro- . duced. Attached to the bottom of the raft is a flexible tube about three feet ; long, bearing a canvas flap, the free edge of which is tethered to the border lof the dinghy at the "stern." There ■ is also a long metal rod, jointed for : convenience in packing but rigid when ■ extended. The occupant of the dinghy ■ pushes the rod down through the flex- ; ible tube, which is thus forced down ! . and extends the canvas flap into a verl tical paddle under the boat. By ; simply moving the upper end of the : rod from side to side, the paddle i moves in a way suggestive of the action , of a fish's tail, and the dinghy goes • ahead. The action has given the appliance the name "waggle-paddle." It is rather surprising to find that with this- simple device one man can propel ihe dinghy, which is about six feet in diameter, at three miles an hour. More- . over, by using the paddle more on one 1 side than the other, the dinghy can i be easily steered and is thus under satisfactory control, and it also acts as i a keel to facilitate the use of a small > sail. This is an invention which will ! survive its war service.