WOUNDS OF 1943

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 4, 6 January 1944, Page 5

WOUNDS OF 1943

GERMANS' BITTER MEMORIES

LONDON, January 4. "Defence in 1943 became our lotdefence against the three greatest Powers on this globe," declared Gerteral Dietmar, the Berlin radio military commentator, in a broadcast. "In the first years pf the war," he added, "ours was a road of steady advance, but 1943 ; has watered down our wine considerably. There is no reason to be tormented by the thought that our storming advances of bygone times may be a tragic error. We are facing Russia— an enemy whose ruthless determination and complete lack of consideration for anything that elsewhere might hinder strategy have from the beginning singled him but as deserving of the utmost respect ■ . ; s "The Russians cannot be measured by the yardstick of former times. Theif command has learnt much from us, and they have in many respects left us behind. They haye surpassed us in everything, in which numbers matter. The Red Army is an unparalleled fighting instrument, and the sufferings of those who fight against Russia are beyond description. They seem to go beyond human endurance. We have not retreated voluntarily to the Dnieper; we were forced by the law of hard necessity. We cannot gloss over the losses we suffered in 1943 in defensive battles; the enemy casualties, however, were absolutely, and" also relatively, far greater than ours. "All tactical and strategical decisions after four years of war are overshad/owed by the problem of maintaining fighting man-power," General Dietmar added. J

"We Germans do not forget .the wounds which 1943 inflicted on us. A year ago we were in Tunis, Tripolitania, the Kuban, and on the Volga— names which marked the frontiers of German power. It is bitter to call them to memory. The heavy fighting of 1943 is a timely warning to us that the days of trial are not yet ended. We would like to think that the climax of our adversities spent itself last summer, when everything and everyone turned against us."