PACE SLACKENING

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXII, Issue 217, 13 August 1942, Page 5

PACE SLACKENING

NAZI CAUCASUS DRIVE. COMMENTS "ON POSITION. (N.Z. Press Association.—Copyright.) LONDON, Aug. 12. Although the Germans are still pressing forward in the Caucasus, the tempo of their drive is slowing down. Moscow confirmed to-day that fighting is going on in the foothills of the Caucasus, but said that two German attacks had been beaten off.

The question arises whether the Germans will attempt to force the Caucasus mountains to reach Baku, or strike swiftly across the North Caucasus, where only foothills impede them. If they reached Makhach Kala they would bo able to establish flying fields and bomb Caspian shipping. The Germans may try to encircle Marshal Timoshenko by reaching Makhach Kala and advancing 50 miles from the Don to the Volga. Other key points on the Russian front, in addition to Stalingrad, Astrakhan, and Baku, are Voronezh and Rzhev. It is felt that, if the Russian counter-offensives developed satisfactorily in these areas, it would be a valuable aid.

Tho inter-Allied talks now proceeding in Moscow are r'egarded as of first importance: They will undoubtedly include discussions on what aid can be given Russia by the Allies. One result of the Germans' success in tho Caucasus will be that the approaching winter will now cut both ways, for the Soviet's economic losses have been severe. Russia's main supply problem is now fuel. She has lost more than half her coal production, with the result that European Russia faces a cold, coalless winter, for there is little hope of coal from the Urals and the Kuznetsk districts being available. The Russians have lost one-third of their wheat and 60 per cent, of their iron. Mr Negley Farson, in the Dailv Mail, declares that tho food position in Russia is already alarming. Jt is a grim hour for the Allied Nations with the Germans striking ever deeper into Russia's vitals, with Rommel still threatening Egypt, with the Japanese ready to strike at Siberia, with civil disobedience in India —India, which can be regarded as the focal point and desired meeting point of both the Germans and tho Japanese. It can be borne in mind, however, that there is evidence of great strain on the German Home front, and that in the battles now being fought the stakes at issue are -almost as large for the Germans as for the Russians. German armament workers aro being hard driven while the Germans have cut down the civilian standard of food, fuel, and rationing also the hours of rest. Meanwhile British and American strength is growing in Britain. Tho Times Moscow correspondent says Marshal Timoshenko is using all his resources to defend Stalingrad and the Volga so as to maintain the Soviet's .vital communications, but von Bock is pouring in great forces of infantry and tanks. The Battles of Kotelnikovo and south of Kletskaya are continuing with undiminished intensity.

The Telegraph's Moscow correspondent reports that the Germans at some points in the Kotelnikovo area forced their way into the Russian defences by sheer weight of metal, but the battle goes on .without decision. The Russians in some Kletskaya sectors pressed back the Germans. The fighting on both sectors is the most bitter of the whole campaign. The Times Stockholm correspondent says the spearhead of the German drive eastwards from Armavir is reported to have by-passed the Mineralny Vody-Georgeivsk junction and turned south-east into the Spa district which is connected with the main Rostov-Baku railway by an electrified branch line. A supplementary Soviet communique refers to highly effective work by the Soviet air force, which on August 10 destroyed or damaged 40 tanks, 200 lorries carrying troops, arms, and supplies, 30 ammunition carts, seven oil tanks, and three ammunition dumps, as well as silencing batteries of guns and routing four battalions of infantry.