The Grey River Argus SATURDAY, July 1, 1944. RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE.

Grey River Argus, 1 July 1944, Page 4

The Grey River Argus SATURDAY, July 1, 1944. RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE.

If their strategy is that of a gradual withdrawal 011 the Eastern Front, the Germans are finding it as difficult and costly as if their aim had instead been to hold on. The latest Russian accounts represent an enemy loss every day of at least fifteen thousand men in killed and prisoners alone. The increase in the number of prisoners perhaps signifies as much as the larger numbers of killed, because it indicates a loss of cohesion, and if disruption should be extended, the Red Army may make a more rapid .advance in the direction of Warsaw, The Germans seem destined to be soon ousted entirely from White Russia, where they had long maintained a salient in the area where they began their invasion of Russia, and calculated upon reaching Moscow. If Minsk, which is almost on the border of Poland, is passed as now seems likely very shortly, the Russians will be not only in a position to begin an occupation of eastern Poland, but also to come at the Baltic States from both ends,' as well as from the centre. They have been for some time at Narva at the northern margin of the Baltic States, and are ready at Lake Peipus to begin an advance into Estonia. Further south the central and I southern German forces now are gradually being wedged apart as I the Red Armies press towards Poland and Hungary. There is a stretch of country between the Carpathian Mountains and the Pripet Marshes through which the Russians eventually may rush across Polish plains towards Silesia, in which) event the en? emy’s northern forces, already being disrupted, would be jeopardised. Meantime the enemy is holding firmly in the south, where the Carpathians offer defensive facilities, and it remains to be seen whether the Russians intend extending their summer offensive so as simultaneously to attack throughout the eastern front. It may be presumed -that the German difficulty is shortage of numbers, and probably materials as well. Since the fall of Vitebsk the Russians have displayed marked mobility; and this presently may be further illustrated by a reduction of Minsk through pincer tactics in which the Rus? sians again out-speed the opposition and come at their objective from several points of the compass. Just how far the Russians aim to carry their advance this summer has yet to be indicated. They have yet to strike into Roumania proper, not to mention Hungary, and their immediate object is possibly that of forming a line from the'Baltic to the Black Sea just beyond their own borders. Meantime they are pro grossing into Finland, where the opposition is to be propped with German divisions. The Germans now have their forces spread so lengthily around their “fortress” that they are hard put to spare any large ones for particular place's, which may partly explain their comparatively moderate reaction to the invasion. On the other hand, the Allies, of course, have many reserves yet to throw in, and the German strategy must be viewed in the light of that fact. The enemy is doubtless as anxious about the future as he is about the actual present. ..