GERMAN STRATEGY

Evening Star, Issue 24003, 30 September 1941, Page 7

GERMAN STRATEGY

DEFENSIVE ROLE " AFTER DEFEATING RUSSIA " PREPARING IRON RING ROUND EUROPE (ißcc.- 11 a.m.) ZURICH. Sept. 29. Germany, after defeating Russia, will stand on the defensive in the war. This amazing statement was made by a Ministerial director, Herr Fritsche, to a gathering of local Nazi leaders at Frankfurt. Speaking on behalf of the_ German Propaganda Ministry, Fritsche said: “ It becomes necessary to take energetic steps against those many disbelievers who now, after the Russian war, dare state that Germany won many battles in the Great War but just the same lost it. Some people point to Napoleon’s eastern war and ask whether Germany is able to win this war. Government circles do not deny the seriousness of the Russian war and. the military leaders do not hide its gravity.” Fritsche instructed the Nazi leaders as to how to counteract such talk, adding; ‘‘lt must be stressed that the eastern war will be won owing to the fact that the Red Army has . already lost such a great part of its military strength and, material that it is now unnecessary for Germany to penetrate too deeply into unlimited territory. Germany is now preparing to build up an iron ring around the Continent, thus frustrating any possibility even for President Roosevelt to come to intervene in Europe.”