SITUATION REVIEWED

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXIV, Issue 37, 12 January 1944, Page 5

SITUATION REVIEWED

DISASTER FACING ENEMY. NEW YORK, Jan. 11.

Qualified military observers discount most of the reports about tho trapped Gorman armies in South Russia in which sensationalism appears to have overridden judgment, says the New York Times London correspondent, Mr D. Middleton. But there is a strong belief that the enemy is facing a disaster exceeding Stalingrad or Tunisia, Mr Middleton adds. Indeed so great is it that it will affect German resistance against the British and American forces 'in Italy and NorthWestern Europe. In tho midst of conflicting reports from Moscow Stockholm military observers have established the following : U) The extent of General Vatutin's thrust south-eastward from Kiev is so great that even a determined German stand as at Vinnitsa cannot check the general advance. (2) The speed of the Russian offensive is so great that the Germans are being forced to leave the Dnieper Bend. Their withdrawals are not yet in full swing, but are believed to have already started in the rear areas.

(3) German casualties are now estimated at 2500 killed and wounded daily, which is more than the British armies lost in the second Souiine Battle of the last war. (4) There is no suggestion of a rout and the communications with Rumania to which the Germans must retreat arc still unimpaired. The observers consider that the retreating Germans will lose over 300,000 men. Such casualties must force Hitler to move divisions from Other fronts, thereby disarranging the defence of Western Europe. I his use of divisions from the west may unable the Nazis to stabilise the line on Poland and Rumania for the winter, but it is extremely questionable whether the divisions so used will be fit for lighting in the west in the ADVANCE WEST OF SARNY. A Russian force has reached the neighbourhood of Kowel., 80 miles west of Snrnv. representing a penetration of about 105 miles into Roland from the 1939 border. Another Russian group 30 miles south of Sarny is advancing against Rovno. The German-controlled Stockholm Telegraph Bureau quotes the Berlin military spokesman for this report, says U enter's Stockholm correspondent. Earlier, military circles in Berlin admitted that the Russians hud captured Sarny. The bureau adds: "Heavy fighting is going on in these sectors, the outcome ot which has not yet been decided, but the Russians have big reserves lor a new push into Polish territoryThe Germans are making the most violent counter-attacks in the Dnieper Bend but arc unable to hold the Russians. The German position in the Ukraine has again deteriorated. South of Pogrebische (50 miles south-east of Berdichev) the Germans are fighting like lions to check the Russian tanks which are running south in a great stream. A general attack is expected at any moment in the .i.rivoi Rog sector. "German military spokesmen continue to make frank admissions of German difliculties on the Eastern Front. Last night they painted a picture one shade blacker than hitherto. Thpy have spoken mainly about the Red Army s progress within Russian territory, but Inst night they referred to the Russian advances in Poland itself." The bureau quotes a Berlin report that real winter is beginning on the Ukrainian front. The Gorman armies are stumbling wc-l wards among huge snowdrifts in teinpcratuers 21 degrees below German military quarters describe the Russian winter, offensive as staggeringly colossal, says the Vichy radio. The Russian attacks, which thus far have not forced a decisive breach in the German lines are now spreading to different sectors 'of the front which hitherto have heen quiet. General Vatutin's force o 50 divisions continues to push on and units have reached the railway at several points. The attacks .St Vitebsk have entered a now stage as the Soviet Command has thrown in fresh reserves.