NAZI SPRING OFFENSIVE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXII, Issue 99, 26 March 1942, Page 5

NAZI SPRING OFFENSIVE

DRAWING ON BALKANS. LONDON, March 24

Signs are accumulating that Hitler is doing his utmost to bring the countries of South-Eastern Europe into his plans for his spring offensive against Russia.

The Daily Mail's correspondent on the German frontier states that the German Embassy in Ankara announced that von Rapen aud King Boris of Bulgaria, who journeyed to Berlin on the same train, will discuss with Hitler the effects of the coming Bulgarian participation in the war against Russia. This, if correct, is the first confirmation from German official quarters that Bulgaria will participate in the attack against her traditional friend, Russia.

It is believed in Ankara, however, that King Boris will plead with Hitler the necessity of keeping his troops at home not only because he fears a Turkish attack, but because Bulgaria, like Hungary, is anxious to preserve her strength in order to hold her gains. King Boris, indeed, is stated to have demolished the equivalent of two divisions, thereby making all his divisions below strength in the hope of convincing the Germans that the Bulgarian army is useless to them. Both Hungary and Rumania, according to Axis sources in Ankara, are believed to have originally promised Hitler 300,000 men for the spring campaign. It remains to be seen whether this promise will be fulfilled, Rumania being equally as unwilling as the others, feeling that she has not yet been compensated for the territorial sacrifices she has already made on Germany's insistance.