OFFENSIVE STRATEGY

Evening Star, Issue 24920, 19 July 1943, Page 3

OFFENSIVE STRATEGY

FURTHER RUSSIAN MOVES EXPECTED LONDON, July 16. Moscow reports that M. Stalin visited Russian troops at the front immediately "before the Soviet offensive was launched. The Russian public is in a state of excitement over the news from tho front, which is comparable with that received' last winter, when the Soviet forces advanced in various sectors. Knowing that the basis of M. Stalin's offensive strategy is to follow up one Mow by another, the Russians, and also foreign observers, are expecting cheering news from sectors other than Orel and Kursk. Battles on an unprecedented scale of intensity are expected to develop soon. The Russians, who are masters of artillery and rely on gunfire more than any other army, will probably surpass the German record in the use of artillery in the first days of the 'battles in the Kursk salient. Here, according to enemy sources, the Reidhswehr used more shells in one dav tlhan in tlie course of the entire French campaign and more bullets than during the Polish campaign. The Germans were confident that the Soviet defenders were reduced to impotence by the intense fire, and discounted tho possibility of a Soviet attack when they began to withdraw to re-form their battered panzer infantry divisions. The Russians, however, did not wait for reinforcements, hut took advantage of the German withdrawal to attack.