Manawatu Evening Standard. THURSDAY, JULY 15, 1943. THE RUSSIAN FRONT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXIII, Issue 193, 15 July 1943, Page 4

Manawatu Evening Standard. THURSDAY, JULY 15, 1943. THE RUSSIAN FRONT.

In the ebb and flow of the battle for the Kursk salient, it is not yet possible to assess the immediate results of Hitler's summer offensive against the Soviet. enemy has made some gains, but they must be regarded as very small when weighed against his heavy lovsses of men and materials. Between Orel and Bielgorod a great salient was left when the Russian winter offensive came to a premature end because of an early thaw. Hitler has to straighten this out and similarly drive a wedge into the Soviet positions, but in spite of his already heavy sacrifices he has not achieved anything of note. In fact, if the mighty determination of the Soviet armies means anything at all, it is that this will be Hitler's barren year in his war against Russia. When autumn gave way to winter late last year the Germans held a line on the middle and southern front running from east of Orel through Voronezh along the Don to Stalingrad; thence it extended southward to Ordjonikidze and westward to Novorossisk. The Germans had taken the whole area lying within the great curve of the River Don, from a point immediately below Voronezh down to and including one of the most important cities in Russia, the port of Rostov at its mouth. This was their gain in their summer offensive.

The main granary of the Ukraine and the important industrial area of the Donetz Basin lie within this vast curve, and though the Germans could not adapt them to their own use the Russians were denied their output. Moreover, the Caucasian oilfields were threatened and some wells were in enemyhands, while the threat to Grozny and the rich areas beyond the range was acute. The Germans indeed were faced with tremendous results from their strategy. The great Russian counter-offensive began in front of Stalingrad at the end of October and its results were impressive. The enemy was hurled back from the Yolga to beyond Kharkov which he later recaptured; the Caucasus oilfields were freed from his clutching hands, and he was deprived of winter quarters in which he expected to recuperate in reacli l ness for this summer's attacks. In addition, he lost vast quantities of material and suffered enormous casualties, including the annihilation of an army of 300,000 before Stalingrad. 'The Russians were also the victims of a cruel fate. Just when they were, at the moment of their greatest triumph, reaching out towards the angle of the Dnieper, threatening to cut that important waterway and the railways connected with it, and to hem in another group of German armies, the thaw came and this success was denied to them. The Germans recoiled tu establish their position along most of the Donetz line and now face territory once captured at heavy cost, and with the knowledge that hope of its recapture has faded.